


Little Boxes

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Black Panther (2018), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Age Difference, Almost forgot to tag that, Alpha T'Challa (Marvel), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, I Don't Even Know, Infidelity, M/M, Omega Tony Stark, Prince T'Challa (Marvel), Tony Being Tony, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has Issues, and its kinda relevant lmao, guess I Must Write, seriously bois this story possessed me and I was like ok then
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-16 09:56:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14809097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: When Tony had been in his twenties he’d been all fast cars, snarky remarks, and promiscuous enough that he offended people with it. Now people talked about how Steve tamed him like he had been a wild animal or some shit. And Steve didn’t tame him at all, he fucking gutted him.*T'Challa doesn’t need another PhD but its better than dealing with political responsibilities at home and he came to America under the guise of doing his best to understand various world cultures. His stint to America is to waste time and avoid his political duties as a prince but his father approved anyways. Probably because he sensed that if he didn’t T’Challa would do what he wants anyways.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So you know when you get an idea and then it basically takes over your brain? That's what this did. I wrote this entire chapter after school with some near laser focus. To clear up ages though Tony is roughly 32 and T'Challa is 25/26 so there's a difference, but they're certainly young/ old enough for it to not really matter.
> 
> Also for T'Challa I'm writing him a little differently than I normally do. In the comics (don't super quote me on this I haven't read them, I've just read on them) he's apparently quite arrogant in his youth. So I have included that here and he'll grow into the T'Challa we see on screen, but he does start out a lot more selfish and arrogant than what we've seen of him in canon, which is inspired by what I know of the comics.
> 
> And lastly I will make it clear here again that this story explicitly deals in infidelity. This is an unavoidable, massive part of the story. Its kind of became a running theme accidentally. Everyone cheats on everyone. I know its a touchy subject so I just want to make it obvious to everyone here that that's a thing. Also Sam/Steve is going to come up in the future also, but I haven't tagged it because I don't know how much it will feature in the story and I don't want to add useless relationship tags D:

Tony doesn’t need an alarm to get up at the same time he does every day but that’s mostly because he doesn’t sleep well and the minute light starts filtering through the curtains he’s awake. He used to sleep with black out curtains but Steve doesn’t like them, says they make getting up in the morning more difficult, so now they have these stupid white willowy things that remind Tony of curtains from another era. For a few moments he lays there, unmoving like he has for the last several hours considering his inability to sleep but he gets up eventually for his morning run.

Funny thing is that he used to hate exercise. Actually making an effort to make your body look a certain way? Ew. It probably helps that he’s naturally good looking but beyond that he used to think that exercise was a waste of his time and efforts. But then he used to think that about marriage too and yet he’s married- got married too young and for all the wrong reasons and _definitely_ to the wrong person. Instead of thinking about that he does other things though. First he mastered cleaning, something he’s never had to do for himself and Steve refused to hire a maid so _someone_ had to clean and Steve worked long hours at the time. Tony would assume its because he’s an omega except Steve genuinely doesn’t care about that kind of thing so he guesses it must have been the long hours.

Cleaning isn’t difficult though and since he’s a genius and also hates cleaning he’s found hundreds of different ways to cut his workload in half by using certain chemicals or methods of cleaning. Next came cooking, which took him a stupid amount of time to learn because he thought of cooking as edible chemistry when its actually easier than that. Baking came after that because _that’s_ edible chemistry- like the science one thing being off by too much can ruin the whole thing and unlike the much more flimsy cooking rules he took to baking much faster and found it easier to do. Now his pastries are actually kind of famous in the small suburb he lives in. Eventually he mastered both of those things too so he had to find a new project, which is what led him to running. He’s always hated it, never understood why people did it, and figured it would be a challenge. After all he’d have to get himself to not only like something he hates, but he’d have to get good at it too.

So that’s how his morning routine resulted in running but he’s figured that out too and actually doesn’t hate it, which means he’s back to being bored. Last week he had been on Pinterest organizing fucking _cooking_ boards with a dog he hated at his feet when he had come to the stunning realization that he hates his life. He hates cleaning, he hates cooking, he resents that he likes baking only because it reminds him of the science he used to do, he hates his large house, and if he never has to see Steve’s stupid fucking drooling golden retriever ever again it’d be too soon. He organized Pinterest boards and honest to god kept up with fucking soap operas with an actual _investment_ in the characters on the shows. If he went back in time and told twenty two year old him that _this_ was his life in ten years he’d shoot himself on the spot. Or laugh in his face at something so absurd.

When he had been in his twenties he’d been all fast cars, snarky remarks, and promiscuous enough that he offended people with it. Actually that’s not hard for an omega to do- all you have to do is sleep with a person once but Tony’s refusal to apologize for it ruffled feathers. Now people talked about how Steve tamed him like he had been a wild animal or some shit. And Steve didn’t tame him at all, he fucking gutted him.

In Steve’s slight defense its not like he intended to do that. Tony is sure he actually had been attracted to Tony as he was, brash attitude and all, but it doesn’t change the fact that he ended up getting stuck moving around for _Steve’s_ career, he ended up a house husband because _Steve_ wanted the house, they got a dog because _Steve_ wanted one, and so on. Tony doesn’t think Steve ever intended to be selfish but his own wants and needs fell to the wayside fast and once he figured out how to deal with everything in his new life… well, there’s only so many ways you can clean a microwave. Its not like when he was designing things- there’s always a new way to get the same result or better with technology. Things can always be improved but housework? That’s so monotonous that Tony sometimes considers drinking the bleach instead of cleaning with it.

And then there’s the whole reason he’s even _in_ this mess to begin with. Sure omega rights have improved but Howard has always had a thing against them and Tony is good, better than him and it showed early on. No one likes when someone smarter than them comes along, it’s a hard pill to swallow for the best of them, but Howard especially resented the easy way Tony’s designs came to him. He resented that Tony didn’t need to think as hard as he did to figure things out, that he made leaps no one else seemed capable of to the point where Tony can literally do the impossible. If the math didn’t work Tony _made_ it work and he was the rising star of Stark Industries, set to take over the failing sun falling behind the horizon. Who knew Howard would find a way to rise from the ashes mostly by stealing all of Tony’s intellectual property- technically the property of _Stark Industries_ \- and marry him off.

It had been a convenient way to cut him out of the company and the fucker didn’t even have to take responsibility for it seems how Tony’s grandfather was technically the one who had made it impossible for Tony to inherit the company. Granted his grandfather had favored him before he died and he had made peace with Tony being an omega, deciding that perhaps his thinking was outdated before he died. Howard only hid behind his father’s ‘old ways’ argument because it had been convenient for him to shuttle Tony off into a life he thought he could maybe make work. He hadn’t known about that particular part of his inheritance and seems how his grandfather had changed his will to include Tony despite his omega status Tony hadn’t thought much of the company.

In hindsight he probably should have figured Howard had a plan, he’d been too insistent that Tony marry Steve and Tony, because he had been a fucking idiot, thought maybe doing something Howard approved of would earn him the man’s love. Instead he accidentally froze himself out of SI and while Steve had been horrified and offended enough at this that he flat out refused to speak to Howard now its not like there was much he could do. Tony got his inheritance still but that was it. Thankfully for him his inheritance is huge not that he’s used much of it. Steve hadn’t grown up with money and he’s always surprised with how easy it seems to be for him to not spend it. Eventually Tony grew so damn bored of his life that even spending money is boring to him now.

The only reason he had married Steve is because Howard approved of him. They hadn’t even really been dating at the time, mostly they’d just been circling each other and because they’re _idiots_ Steve went with his stupid plan to get married. He doesn’t regret it, Tony knows he doesn’t, but Tony regretted it a month in and its only gotten worse from there. Back when Steve had been a sort of elusive military friend of Howard’s he had had a status Tony had interest in. He’d been something like forbidden fruit, something to tempt Tony closer and his genuine interest in Tony’s fiery personality and refusal to take any shit helped considerably. People didn’t tend to like the mouthy omega and those that didn’t flat out dislike him were intimidated by his refusal to lack opinions and be the proper, demure omega they were used to. He’s sure that Steve found that intriguing, attractive even, and since the guy basically fucks rainbows and sunshine when everything went to shit he did his best to look on the positive side.

Tony though, well, he’s bored. He’s been bored for years and he’s at his damn limit. There’s only so long you can go on living the Stepford life before it becomes the same kind of fucked up it was in the book. As he runs by the houses in his neighborhood he can’t help but think that song, Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds. The houses are all similar- Home Owners Regulations ensure that, the people all fit the same boring all-American profile Steve does, and even the damn _animals_ are the same. If Tony were asked the difference between Steve’s dog and any other dog on the street he would be genuinely at a loss unless he could call the dog’s name to figure out which animal came to it.

When he gets home Steve is awake and he smiles when he sees Tony, apparently oblivious to his unhappiness and utter discontent. “You’re up early,” he says like Tony isn’t up at this time every day or earlier. If he’s awake earlier he runs for longer because that’s easier than staring at the walls of this goddamn house for any longer than he has to.

“Yeah,” Tony mumbles because he’s expected to respond. Steve reaches out to him but he skirts past, avoiding touch until he’s secured himself in the bathroom so he could shower his run off and avoid Steve for as long as humanly possible. The dog whines at the other side of the door and Tony glares at the wood between them even as he hears Steve call the dog to him. Tony would have preferred a cat or anything else that didn’t require so much work but Steve insisted on the dog. The saving grace is that Steve at least walks it once a day most of the time so Tony only has to handle Walk Two of the day. He’d prefer that Steve pick up dog shit but he’s too intent on avoiding Steve to ask him about it.

By the time he gets out of the shower- he uses soaps that _aren’t_ Steve’s and if Steve has caught to clear message of that he doesn’t seem to notice- and the dog is at his side as soon as he leaves the space. Probably sat outside the door and Tony sighs because that’s his cue to find those suppressants he’s kept hidden from Steve for the last three years. The dog noticed his heats faster than Steve did and as much as Tony hated the dog every troll has its use. Besides that the dog has a heavy preference for Steve, probably because he can sense how much Tony resents the dog’s existence, so the only time he spends more time with Tony is when he can smell his heat coming. Apparently he smells pretty to the pets too.

He finds the suppressants, takes one, and asks the dog if he wants a treat. His ears perk up and he follows Tony out to the cupboard he keeps the dog treats in and he gives the dog a couple of those nasty little bone things he loves so much and a pat on the head. “Good boy,” he tells the dog, pleased that his conditioning as worked well. At first the dog smelled his heats when Steve did but once he got used to being around Tony he noticed that the dog smelled it just a little sooner.

It took a few months to notice why the dog tried to crawl up his ass for two solid days before his heats every month but once he did he went out and bought a stupid amount of suppressants and trained the dog to be his secret reminder not to smell extra appealing to Steve. Steve never pressed his luck, but he did make an effort to be around Tony more when in heat and that’s the last thing he wants so as much as he wants to send the dog off to some other loving family he figures he’ll make use of the tools he has at his disposal and train the dog to help him avoid his preferred housemate.

The dog, for his part, always enjoys this time of the month because he’s learned to wake Tony up in the night to take his suppressants too. That gets him extra treats and attention so really everyone wins, even Steve, who just thinks he hit the omega version of menopause weirdly young. It happens, its rare, but it happens.

Steve walks over again and this time Tony can’t avoid him so he mostly deals with the morning kiss that leaves Steve frowning because he’s obtuse but not a complete moron. “Are you okay?” he asks. “You don’t seem… yourself, lately.”

That’s a fucking understatement, but in Steve’s defense the change was gradual. He spent a long time determined to make this work just to spite Howard but this isn’t the kind of life he’s ever wanted- it’s the life _Steve_ wanted. Tony can’t say he blames him for wanting something stable and boring after his turbulent childhood but Tony’s own chaos in his early years made him crave more of it. He likes the potential of unpredictability, they way it requires him to think on his feet and find solutions fast, its why he likes science. But being cut out of SI had made him look bad, his previous life as a party boy made him look worse, and Howard’s small but effective smear campaign basically killed his career. Maybe if he weren’t so loud or if he wasn’t an omega he could have recovered but his father’s ‘getting tired’ of his immaturity and apparent drug use and his subsequent cutting him out of the company to ‘teach him a lesson’ basically made him untouchable in all the wrong ways.

Which leaves him here, almost wishing he did have a habit because that might make his life more interesting.

“I’m fine, Steve,” he says and they both know it’s a lie. Maybe Steve didn’t notice his unhappiness because it happened gradually enough that by the time his scent soured completely Steve had probably been used to it, but he _does_ know enough about Tony to know that something is off. Sure his version of Tony is a little off kilter- the guy he knew didn’t actually mind housework and cooking because he’d been trying to figure it out at the time- but that determination and fire is long gone and Steve knows it. Unlike Tony though he probably thinks there’s a way to salvage it.

He sighs, not accepting his lie but he doesn’t call Tony on it either. “There’s a charity event in New York I have to go to for work, come with me. I know you miss your mom,” he says, misreading why Tony enjoys their occasional trips to New York entirely. He doesn’t miss his mom, well he _does_ , but it’s the city he misses and all the shenanigans he used to get up to with Rhodey. Obviously Rhodey grew up, went into the military, and Tony got fucked by Howard, but he still misses the way things used to be before everything went to shit. He doesn’t think his life would look the way it did ten years ago if he hadn’t married Steve- or at least he hopes it wouldn’t given that Howard at least made a good point about his maturity- but he probably wouldn’t think of walking into traffic so often if he had the life he wanted to live.

He considers telling Steve no and enjoying a few days to himself but Steve looks hopeful and Tony really does miss the city so he sighs. “Okay,” he says and Steve smiles wide like he’s won something and Tony doesn’t have the heart to tell him all he’s won is an omega using the city to escape instead of learning a new hobby he’ll grow bored with eventually.

*

Tony can tell that Steve thinks he’s done something right when he grins at the city buildings but he has no idea that Tony is plotting escape from whatever stupid charity event he’s being hauled off to. New York offers endless possibilities and he’s intent on doing something fun to let loose though he’s unsure what that is at the moment. When Steve settles his hand on Tony’s thigh he allows it mostly because he’s considering the logistics of slipping Steve later and debating on what he’ll actually do with his free time. With his mind occupied he barely even notices Steve’s presence.

By the time they get to the hotel Tony has the next three days planned and he’s basically out of the car before Steve even stops it. He sees the worry on Steve’s face as he jumps out, all but running into the hotel to drop his bags off before he can go enjoy the city. “Hey, slow down,” Steve tells him as he catches up, settling a hand on Tony’s lower back that he almost manages to slip but he doesn’t quite make it.

“Sorry, I have a lunch date,” he lies and Steve frowns.

“Already?” he asks and Tony shrugs.

“I have friends here,” he points out even though that’s not really true. What he had were people he used to party with and not a single one talks to him now, which really only adds to his loneliness. He suspects he might not be so antsy if he had actual friends but all he’s got is Rhodey and he’s off on whatever base he’s on now. Tony doesn’t keep up because it’s all the same to him. Point is he’s a world away and Tony enjoys when Rhodey visits, but its not often.

Steve considers this and sighs, “I guess so. I was hoping that we could spend time together though,” he says, entirely way too predictable.

Tony has planned for this. “I was going to make us a dinner reservation tomorrow,” he tells Steve. What he doesn’t tell Steve is that dinner makes it impossible to spend much time together because they need to be at that stupid charity thing at eight and Tony will make sure to make that reservation as late as possible to avoid spending too much time with Steve. Honestly he must be saving Steve the awkwardness too- sure he’s trying here but he must find their clumsy attempts at spending time together just as tedious as Tony.

Or maybe not though because he smiles wide, obviously elated that Tony has considered this- so much so that when Tony basically drops his bags and runs out the door Steve doesn’t comment on it. In his slight defense as he walks out of the hotel he gets a call from Hope, which he answers right away mostly because he’s worried Rhodey off and _died_ or something and as his wife Hope would be the first to know but as it turns out she has other plans.

“Suburban life hasn’t sucked your brain out, has it?” she asks after establishing that no, Rhodey is very much not dead thankfully.

“Debatable. I can tell you seventeen ways to clean your bathtub off the top of my head and honestly that is knowledge I’d like to flog myself for recalling so fast,” he says. By the time he’s finished the sentence another fifteen methods have popped into his head.

Hope snorts, “aw, poor rich boy had to learn to clean his own tub. Forgive me for not feeling any pity,” she tells him and he rolls his eyes.

“Coming from the rich girl who never had to learn- okay,” he says and they laugh. “But I’m assuming you have a reason for calling.” He hopes, perhaps in a futile way, that Hope has a science project for him but he’s pretty sure Pym would want nothing to do with him. Hank and Howard have hated each other for ages and thanks to the association Hank hated him too. Funny considering how similar he and Howard are as people, but the only time Tony got to remind him that he knew about Hope’s bruises it wasn’t a showdown that lasted long. And Tony wouldn’t have won that battle anyways- he had been fifteen and too mouthy for his own good. But he hopes Hope has something for him regardless of how stupid that is.

Hope sighs in his ear, “meet me for lunch- I have it on good authority you’re in town,” she tells him and Tony grins. Well look at that, he won’t even have to lie to Steve later.

*

When Hope finishes her story Tony’s eyebrows are at his hairline. “Wow, Pym got fucked out of Pym Technologies. Guess I should watch the news instead of organizing my Pinterest boards,” he says, shaking his head. Hope looks confused for a moment and Tony sighs. “Look, don’t ask. I have absolutely nothing interesting to tell you.”

Hope grins, “I’m pretty sure your suburban life will be plenty interesting to me but that’s probably because I remember that time you, me, and Rhodey all got really drunk and broke into Hammer’s house to trash the place just because you didn’t like him,” she says and Tony laughs.

“I forgot about that. It is safe to say that kind of thing is safely in the past,” he says, not entirely pleased with that and Hope catches it immediately.

“You okay? Rhodey is worried about you,” she says and now Tony knows why she called.

“You know you can ask that without risking your ass hiring a ruined scientist, right?” he points out.

Hope rolls her eyes, “honestly I can’t even believe anyone bought Howard’s bullshit let along froze you out. You’re brilliant and Rhodey thinks your bored- we both have a problem to solve and if we use each other to do it, well, its not a bad thing,” she says.

So it isn’t. “What exactly do you need me to do?” he asks. When Hope hands over several files on, of all things, an urban legend his eyebrows rise again. “You know this is a conspiracy theory, right?” he asks and Hope shakes her head.

“No it isn’t. I’ve seen Pym Particles in action, Tony, and I have a template formula but its highly unstable. It shrinks stuff but it gets destroyed in the process. I need you to fix it,” she tells him.

Tony looks down at the files and back to Hope before he shrugs and nods. He needs a new project anyways and maybe he’s pretty sure Hope is lying about seeing Pym Particles in action because they’re _fake_ but that’s fine. He’ll figure out how to make legend reality- he’s done it before.

*

Steve remains utterly uninterested in Pym Particles but Tony has quickly become obsessed. He knows he’s talking a mile a minute and he knows all of it is going right over Steve’s head but he can’t help it. He’s always like this when he’s focused on a project and its been a long, _long_ time since he’s had a project. “Tony,” Steve says, cutting him off, but gently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, you lost me after you started talking about some wild eighties conspiracy. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asks and Tony sighs.

“Yeah Pym Particles are an urban legend now, but give me a couple weeks. I’ve got some ideas,” he says, not bothering to list the several variations of formulas in his head. Steve wouldn’t understand anyways- smart as he is this is not his area of expertise.

He can see that Steve doesn’t believe him but he ignores that and goes back to theorizing out loud. Thinking out loud has always helped him with his process and when Steve starts to look more worried Tony just ignores it because his worry isn’t warranted.

*

T’Challa has never been fond of charities but his father insists he goes to these sorts of things even if he’s basically wasting time in school. He doesn’t _need_ another PhD but its better than dealing with political responsibilities at home and he came to America under the guise of doing his best to understand various world cultures. He went spent a year in India when he had been in high school, he got a bachelors degree in Japan, a masters degree in England, one PhD in South Africa, and another in Egypt. His stint to America is to waste time and avoid his political duties as a prince but his father approved anyways. Probably because he sensed that if he didn’t T’Challa would do what he wants anyways. He gets regular lectures on maturity and growing up but he resents not really having a childhood anyways.

He has no idea how he’s supposed to grow up when he has been expected to be an adult straight from the womb. Regardless he does show up to these things to appease his father and because American politics are entertaining in a way that Wakandan politics are not. Like any other country Wakanda has its political extremists and whatnot, but unlike America they don’t have much political power and they don’t actively polarize voters. Watching American politics is like watching a bad reality television show (and he has a guilty pleasure for those too), sometimes literally when they actually elect _reality television stars_ into powerful political positions. Given that he doesn’t have to deal with the fallout of their bad policies and political incompetence its good entertainment. They don’t make them like this in Wakanda and he’s discovered popcorn is a delicious snack to go with his American debates that are so laughable he honestly can’t believe they’re real sometimes.

Thankfully his amusement with America’s politics makes his conversations with his father easier. He thinks T’Challa is actually learning things rather than amusing himself while he staves off the inevitable just because he can recall up to date political happenings readily. He likes things this way because it means he can successfully avoid prince duties for another three years at least.

Entertainment at charity events, though, is another story. The people here are always boring, stuffy, and sometimes irritatingly condescending to him like they don’t think he’s intelligent. Joke is on them, he is one of the smartest people in the world if you use IQ scores. Sometimes he pretends to be stupid just to see how much he can fool the person speaking to him but that gets boring after awhile too. What he doesn’t expect to find is someone else pulling the same tricks he does.

He watches in amusement as the omega’s eyes go wide in mock shock, “ _that’s_ how that works?” he asks, pitching his voice _just_ right to sound awed but in a way that’s clearly faked. His companion doesn’t catch a clue.

“Yes, and-” the guy goes on to continue but T’Challa is intrigued so he steps in and waves him off.

“He knows how the economy works, be gone,” he says, waving a hand at him in a shooing motion that makes the omega laugh.

Their companion, however, doesn’t look impressed. “Who are you?” he asks and T’Challa rolls his eyes.

“Only an American could be so stupid,” he mumbles. “If you don’t know who I am, don’t address me,” he tells the irritating politician. Or T’Challa assumes that is his occupation and by now he’s good at picking them out.

This earns another amused snort out of the omega, who looks thoroughly amused with this change in events. Their companion stutters for a few moments but when T’Challa raises an eyebrow he leaves, unable to think of anything else to do in this situation. “ _Wow_ , power move,” the omega says, laughing. “But you’re going to have to forgive me, I don’t know who you are either and I don’t recognize the accent. Definitely African, but nothing I’ve heard.”

Well, he’s intelligent even if he’s clearly not informed. T’Challa lets this slide mostly out of curiosity and also because of the sharp, astute look he’s getting from the omega. Something about it makes him ignore his pride in favor of the distinct feeling of intrigue and attraction. “I’m the Prince of Wakanda- I would think that Americans would be more informed on world leaders,” he says even though he knows that’s not very true of the country.

This gets a reaction, mostly of surprise, but it quickly fades to curiosity and that alone is interesting enough for T’Challa to want to investigate. People tended to be intimidated by him, not intent to look into him further. Whoever this is he’s used to being around people in power- otherwise he wouldn’t look so composed still. Most people are sputtering out apologies by now.

“Wakanda. Man I _really_ need to start watching the news instead of organizing my Pinterest boards,” he says, shaking his head in just a touch of shame. He recovers fast though. “T’Challa, right?” he asks and T’Challa raises an eyebrow.

“You know my name?” he asks, surprised that he’d have that information if he hadn’t known who he was on sight.

The omega nods, “I read some of your work when you were working on your masters degree in England. You’re ridiculously smart- most of England wrote your work off as impossible but that’s only because they hadn’t figured out the math. You obviously had it worked out but your work made it clear that you liked that you knew and no one else did. Cheeky,” he says and T’Challa’s eyebrows climb again.

He had forgiven his initial indiscretion of not knowing who he was on sight but clearly he knows the more important things about T’Challa anyways. “You picked up on my sarcasm,” he says, impressed.

The omega grins, “hard not to, most of your papers consisted of you out and out calling England’s tech developers clumsy barbarians. Made for entertaining reading,” he says. The words are innocuous technically speaking, but the way he holds himself is _just_ this side of flirtatious. A quick glance at his left hand tells him this omega is married but he’s never really cared about that kind of thing anyways. It’s not his marriage to ruin and its not like he’s looking for attachments. If this omega wants to flirt well, T’Challa is happy to oblige.

“Do you have a name I would recognize? You must have some hold in the technological community,” he says. He’d have to if he knew T’Challa’s work however dated it was and he’s curious.

A brief sour look crosses the omega’s face and T’Challa is worried he managed to botch an interaction that he’s quite beginning to enjoy but the look fades fast. “Probably not- Tony Stark,” he says, offering a smile that wouldn’t look any more than friendly to anyone looking but T’Challa can feel the heat in Tony’s gaze. Those warm brown eyes hold a clear intelligence in them that tells T’Challa that he knows what he’s doing, and he knows T’Challa knows what he’s doing too. Riding the line of social acceptability- it shows a clear social intelligence that has T’Challa interest piqued.

That, and he _does_ know this omega’s name. “You were a shining star- your ideas were so advanced that the rest of the world had no idea how you even made the things you did. What happened?” he asks, familiar with Tony fading into obscurity around ten years ago. T’Challa had been home for a brief time between England and South Africa and he’d been confused when Tony disappeared. He had been the only one who had been catching up to Wakandan tech even if he still remained a good fifty years behind the country. But he had been a good ten years _minimum_ ahead of everyone else. T’Challa had kept up with his work because it had been compelling to watch someone who wasn’t his sister make leaps no one else could. Then one day he was gone.

Tony lets out an annoyed sigh. “Sorry, you have to at least buy me a drink to unlock my tragic backstory,” he says and T’Challa throws back his head and laughs.

“I _like_ you,” he says, looking Tony over. It’s not subtle, but it isn’t lacking for subtly either- you just needed to know what to look for to see it. Tony notices because he’s clearly not stupid or maybe because he’s looking for interest. Either way when T’Challa gives him an appreciative onceover he notices several things. One- obviously Tony is American. Two- he’s married. And three- he clearly has personal issues if he’s willing to ignore his marriage however innocent he may or may not tell himself his flirting is later. Everything about Tony reads _UNAVAILABLE_ to T’Challa and that is precisely why he shifts a little closer, pleased when Tony leans in too, giving T’Challa a coy smile as he does so.

He can smell the attraction there and he wants to see how far this will go. So does Tony, so what’s the harm?

*

Tony knows he’s a fucking idiot for doing it, especially when there are so many people around him but when T’Challa interrupted that conversation it was _electric_. Its been a long time since Tony has felt anything besides irritated at the attention that comes his way, mostly from Steve, but when T’Challa looks at him he’s hit with a sharp wave of interest and attraction. It helps that T’Challa is wearing some kind of scent that reminds Tony of flowers, but its not nearly as repugnant as American flower scents are. T’Challa smells… sweeter. And when T’Challa sticks around to talk, well. Tony almost can’t help the flirtatious lilt of his words. He used to be a flirt not that he’s exercised that skill in some time but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

T’Challa toes the line of acceptability himself, keeping a respectable distance between them but shifting occasionally to purposefully lean closer to Tony’s space. His smiles would look innocuous to anyone looking their way but Tony can feel the heat in his gaze and he can see the distinct interest in the way T’Challa occasionally looks him over. He knows T’Challa has noticed the ring- if he stopped wearing it Steve would _definitely_ notice- but if he cares he doesn’t show it. Tony might wonder if T’Challa didn’t catch the clear social clue if it wasn’t so obvious that he knows American social rules well, certainly well enough to avoid breaking them though he bends them quite a bit. There’s no way he doesn’t know what that ring means and Tony is strangely attracted to T’Challa’s obvious lack of an opinion on that. Or at least an opinion Tony wouldn’t like.

He’s a lot more attracted to T’Challa’s intelligence though. When T’Challa asks him what he’s doing now he thanks Hope for giving him an actual answer to that and tells T’Challa about his theories on Pym Particles. He doesn’t write Tony off immediately- instead he starts balancing Tony’s equations and asking questions and Tony is _delighted_ to answer them. By the time Steve finally discovers that Tony is eyeballs deep in an emotional affair T’Challa’s questions have helped him work out a few kinks in his designs. He has a lot of work to do still, but he’s got more than he had an hour and a half ago.

If Steve notices the palatable connection he and T’Challa have he doesn’t say anything. Instead he excuses Tony and walks off with him before Tony can do… hell he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do here if anything. It might be for the best honestly- is he really going to cheat on Steve? Even he’s not that much of a prick. But when he glances behind him T’Challa has followed his exit and he feels that heat in the pit of his stomach and wonders if he really wants to give that up too. Selfish, but Tony hasn’t ever claimed not to be.

Luck works out on his side because someone distracts Steve long enough for T’Challa to make a reappearance. He walks by in such a nonchalant way that Tony has to wonder if he’s trained to fake disinterest, especially when Tony feels T’Challa press paper into his hand on his way by. His _left_ hand too, and considering his right side was easier to get to it had to have been deliberate. Tony feels himself smile even if he knows that’s probably not something he should smile about, but that takes some _guts_. When Steve goes back to extracting them from this damn charity event he slips the paper into his pocket, strangely pleased with his recent turn of events.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here- have another chapter because I have no self control and also because I may be a little too in love with this story. Nearly ten K in 2 days is a lot even for me lol.

When Tony looks at the paper T’Challa slipped him after Steve falls asleep- not a difficult task for him at all and Tony resents that- he finds a hotel address and a room number. So he’s visiting too. Mostly out of curiosity and a little out of his inability to sleep he looks T’Challa up, catching up on his work and noting that he’s currently residing in the country as a student. Probably wasting time before he has to do something meaningful with his life and he’s got the time to do it. Tony wishes he would have done the same thing but no, he got married young like an idiot. When he finally dozes off he’s gotten rid of the paper, destroying the evidence but he’s got the information on it committed to memory. What he’s going to do with that he has no idea.

As usual he wakes up early, before Steve, and he lies there and considers his options. He doesn’t need to bother with his morning run, he can do literally anything else, but he’s settled into a routine and god help him he doesn’t want to break it. Or maybe that’s just what he tells himself to get out of the hotel considering where he finds himself a half an hour later. In hindsight it was probably stupid to go running, presumably, to a one night stand. Or a one day stand considering it’s the early morning. And would T’Challa even be awake at this time? It’s a stupid decision, so why is he walking into the hotel?

Tony considers his motivations right up until he gets to T’Challa’s room, hand raised to knock and he just about turns and leaves but his hand knocks anyways. It’d be rude to just leave after that, even if the knock was quiet. He doesn’t expect anything but he hears stirring pretty much right away and curses himself. He’s seriously going to do this? Cheating is selfish even for him but when T’Challa opens the door all regret instantly leaves his mind, vanishing when he gets a good look at T’Challa’s sleep mussed look.

And it’s a good look on him. The prince only looks a little disheveled, like he keeps appearances asleep too but the aura of sleepiness around him gives him a special kind of attractive or maybe that’s his pajama pants perched a little too low on his hips. Or his well muscled body, but its not the kind of muscle that’s for show. People who didn’t know what to look for might miss it under the thin layer of fat, used to strength being associated with muscles developed more from steroid use than actual training, but Tony knows what real muscle strength looks like. Whatever T’Challa’s routine is the goal isn’t to resemble a men’s fitness magazine, its to develop the muscles in a useable, practical way. Not that he doesn’t look good, he does, and in Tony’s opinion his body type is more attractive than what’s pushed for in America- what Steve has- or maybe this is the kind of look Wakanda desires. He has no idea and he doesn’t really care either.

Mostly he wants to test T’Challa’s strength, see what exactly that work out routine of his has resulted in. He has a few ideas too, and a burning need to test his theories-

His thoughts are cut off by T’Challa reaching out and tilting his chin up a bit, “I do have a face, you know,” he says and Tony feels his cheeks heat. Shit, he hasn’t blushed since he was what, fifteen? Sixteen? But there’s something about the way T’Challa looks down at him with that cocky smile, full well knowing what’s running through Tony’s mind that makes him feel almost nervous, inexperienced. Which in this he supposes he is.

Tony feels his lips curl up, “I would have got there eventually, if you hadn’t interrupted the view. Rude,” Tony tells him and T’Challa outright smiles.

“You know what, I’m not even mad that you woke me up,” he says, drawing Tony into the room, fingers still on his chin. Tony almost feels compelled to move closer, like that simple point of contact is all that’s needed for him to walk forward. He supposes it is considering that’s what he’s doing. T’Challa carefully shuts the door behind them, keeping his palm on the edge of it and that leaves him leaning into Tony just a little. He finally drops his hand from Tony’s chin and he’s surprised he makes a disappointed noise at the loss of the touch. “What do want?” T’Challa asks, voice pitched just right and Tony has a million answers that he can give but there’s mostly only one that matters.

He wants to feel desired, wanted in a way that doesn’t feel hollow and obligatory the way Steve’s attempts do. He wants passion. But he doesn’t say any of that because that’s not the kind of thing you get from a one night stand so he settles a little, lowering his standards to fit the situation and T’Challa is hardly a downgrade. He reaches out, placing a hand on T’Challa’s hip and leaning into his space a little. “I want to be marked,” he says in a low, husky tone that always works on alphas. Apparently it works if they’re from Wakanda too because he can _smell_ the desire that produces and his nose has always been off. Too much time in the lab means me mostly just smells metal all the time.

T’Challa considers him, looking him over slowly like he’s planning what to do with Tony. His lips tip up a little, obviously pleased with what he finds and Tony’s breath hitches up a little in anticipation. “Are you always this easy?” T’Challa asks but there isn’t the usual ignorant nature Tony might have gotten with the question from an American alpha.

Tony lets out a soft laugh, “no. I used to be notoriously hard to please,” he says. Clearly that’s not the case anymore or maybe that’s just T’Challa.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which one of those options T’Challa decides it is. “Maybe American alphas just don’t know what they’re doing,” he says. Tony can attest that that’s true but he’s disinterested in that debate at the moment.

*

Tony is starved for attention and touch and it makes him easy to please. He reacts readily and strongly to T’Challa’s touch, arching his back and making small, attractive noises like he’s trying to hold some of his reactions back but with little success. It’s not difficult, T’Challa knows, to indulge a touch-starved omega but it’s an ego boost nonetheless. Tony had mentioned being notoriously hard to please though T’Challa finds no evidence for it himself. Probably because he actually knows what he’s doing and Tony is easy to read. Normally he has to put at least a little effort into determining what his partner likes but with Tony the results are immediate and easy to pick up on- what he likes is abundantly obvious. What he _really_ likes is even more obvious.

T’Challa is more than happy to give Tony what he wants, taking care to run his hands over Tony’s frame, admiring his slight figure. Despite that its clear he spends time on exercise because T’Challa can feel the muscle in his thighs in particular. He’s quite stunning and T’Challa rather likes being chosen over his husband- like he’s won a competition he had no idea he was in but he’s pleased to find himself the winner regardless. And Tony curls around him easily, happily bearing his neck in a way that’s far too attractive to pass up, not when he smells the way he does. Its all desire and lust and T’Challa wants as much of it as he can manage as he presses his face into Tony’s neck, nipping at the skin there. He said he wanted to be marked and T’Challa is sure that there isn’t a part of Tony that doesn’t smell like him by the time they’re through.

Sex mussed is an attractive look on Tony too. His hair is wild and his cheeks are a little flushed, a biological giveaway that T’Challa hadn’t anticipated. He’s used to darker skin and a blush is harder to catch, but Tony’s pale coloring means even the slightest shift of color is noticed. T’Challa had decided early on that he likes that about Tony. “Wow,” Tony murmurs, looking over to T’Challa and he gives him a small, satisfied smile but there’s still a little lust there and he smells of desire. Insatiable, but T’Challa decides he likes that too. It means he’s done his job well.

T’Challa reaches out and carefully runs the tips of his fingers down Tony’s jaw and neck, smiling when Tony’s eyelid flutter and he lets out a soft moan. Easy, _so_ easy, and T’Challa has to wonder what kind of awful lover Tony’s husband is if he can’t manage to gratify the obviously starved for affection omega. He leans over and kisses Tony, pleased when he leans into it, curling his entire body closer to T’Challa, to his touch. “Are you free tomorrow?” T’Challa murmurs, running his hand down Tony’s side, appreciating the small shiver Tony lets out. He needs more of this and besides that T’Challa wants more of it.

Tony nods a little, “I’ll find a way,” he breathes out, pausing for only a moment before he presses himself into T’Challa again. Needy omega.

*

Holy _hell_ he’s missed sex that doesn’t feel stiff and wooden. He misses a lot of other things too but for now the sex is enough and now he’s committing premeditated cheating, not that he really minds. And he should mind- unhappy or not that’s a pretty shitty thing to do to Steve but what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him. It isn’t until he gets home that he realizes that he fucking _reeks_ of T’Challa, which means he’s damn lucky he doesn’t run into Steve before he showers. To say that would result in questions is an understatement. Of course once he’s in the shower he realizes that T’Challa has done maybe _too_ good a job with Tony’s request to be marked.

When he spots Steve’s soap he smiles, finding the solution to his problem. He won’t even sniff past Tony smelling more like him than he has in years. He gets out of the shower feeling strangely refreshed, hungry, and kind of tired so he goes off to hunt some food down only to find Steve walking through the door. He _barely_ manages to keep from rolling his eyes but he can’t help the smile when Steve lifts up a bag. “I thought you might appreciate food after your run,” he says and Tony notes the time on the clock. He’s been gone for a lot more time than his usual morning run and shouldn’t he feel guilty by now?

Steve had been thoughtful enough to go buy him food and he’d been cheating on him with a prince. At least that had been a step _up_ from his usual though that isn’t hard to do these days. At this point near anyone would be a step up from Steve simply because Tony is so unhappy. “Thanks,” he says, pulling the bag from Steve’s grasp so he could sniff out what Steve got for him. The smell of bacon has his mouth watering and that’s probably why he misses Steve’s reaction to his scent until he’s curled an arm around Tony. Its too late to fend him off after that so Tony mostly tolerates it.

“You used my soap,” he murmurs. “And you smell sweeter,” he adds.

Poor bastard has no idea he’s smelling T’Challa, not Tony. He’s been told his scent isn’t all that sweet but that’s back when he used to spend a lot of time in labs so hell, maybe he _does_ smell sweet naturally. Either way that’s not his scent Steve is smelling and Tony isn’t about to correct him. “Didn’t bring my own,” he says to explain himself and it’s the wrong answer because Steve looks hurt. He opens his mouth to tell Steve its nothing against him really, he just hates the artificial smell of his choice in body wash but he thinks that might make it worse so he gives Steve a soft smile instead. “Thanks for breakfast,” he says and he means it too but that’s more because he’s starving and less because Steve had been thoughtful.

It seems to ease the hurt a little and Tony goes back to mostly ignoring Steve while he inhales the food before passing out in bed.

*

He doesn’t _mean_ to confess anything, Maria knows, but Tony has never been good at keeping secrets, especially from her. “Anthony Edward Stark, I did not raise you to be this way!” she tells him in a sharp tone but her hypocrisy is not lost on her. Its not as if she has a record free of infidelity either but Tony doesn’t know about that, not yet, because Peggy is meticulous and she had been more offended at Howard’s actions than Steve and that’s saying something. But unlike Steve Peggy is sneaky and ruthless and more focused on revenge than moving on. She had thought Tony would have reacted more like Peggy but he surprised her by trying to make his marriage work instead but she knew he was unhappy long before he finally figured it out. Learning how to bake was never going to satisfy his need to learn and his persistent curiosity about the world. That had just been a useful distraction at the time.

Granted she didn’t think he’d cheat on Steve either. Tony sighs, “it was one time. Technically twice if you include later,” he mumbles, looking away. The expression on his face reminds her of all those times he got into things he shouldn’t have as a child and she feels a pang of regret. There’s so much of her life she’d take back now, do differently if only for Tony’s sake. He didn’t deserve a lot of what’s come his way.

“Anthony Edward! _What_ are you doing?” she asks him, sounding more genuinely confused than angry. Tony has never been the type to stick with something he has no interest in so what’s holding him back from getting a divorce, she wonders. It isn’t in his nature to stay, so how come he’s still there?

Tony sighs and throws his hands up, “I’m _bored_ mom! I tried living the bullshit suburban life with the house and the dog and we don’t have a white picket fence thank _god_ or I’d throw myself on it from a high enough height that I’d be impaled on it- point is this isn’t the life I want. Its never the life I wanted.” Maria clenches her jaw, hiding her emotions perhaps too readily when Tony mentions suicide casually, like those thoughts are normal. He didn’t used to do that, talk about death so flippantly, and Maria misses her son. Whoever he is now isn’t the Tony she knows.

“So you went and cheated on Steve- why not just leave?” she asks. He doesn’t have the complications she has with Howard and she tempers the spark of jealousy she feels. Its stupid not to mention horrible to be upset that her son isn’t in as bad a relationship as she is.

Peggy interrupts her questioning though, surprising Tony, who stands immediately out of respect- a habit he has only with her. “Oh hey aunt Peggy, I’m not cheating on Steve,” he says, immediately outing himself. Maria covers her mouth to keep from laughing as Peggy shakes her head.

“You’re painfully easy to interrogate,” she tells him and Tony makes an offended noise.

“That’s not true!” he tells her.

Peggy clearly thinks she’s going to win this argument already because she already looks satisfied with herself. “Fine dear. But I’ve known that you’re cheating on Steve for years,” Peggy tells him and Tony makes another offended noise.

“I haven’t been cheating on him for years, I’ve only been cheating on him since last night!” he says in his own defense. Maria can’t help but laugh at that, doubling over at how easy it is for Peggy to get her answers. She used to do this with Tony when he was a child too and he always cracked before she even asked him questions. He had been an insufferable brat to everyone _else_ but with Peggy he had always been a perfect angel, even in his confessions.

“Just leave him Tony, you’ve been unhappy since almost the beginning of your marriage,” Peggy says, choosing now to back Maria up. Tony sits down, deflating really, before he sighs.

“Yeah I guess,” he says softly but both Maria and Peggy know that this means nothing. It leaves Maria more curious about Tony’s reasons for staying but Peggy chooses to move on.

“Well I hope your new fling isn’t a downgrade,” Peggy says. “Though I suppose its pretty hard to top Steve,” he adds.

Tony snorts, “its not that hard to top Steve,” he says and Maria wrinkles her nose.

“Tony we don’t need that information,” she tells him.

It takes a moment for Tony to catch her line of thinking and then he wrinkles his nose too. “Oh gross mom, that’s not even what I meant! And he’s not a downgrade, actually he’s a prince so he’s a pretty big upgrade,” he says. Peggy squints for a moment, trying to determine if that was a lie but Tony is terrible at lying. Besides that his lies are always reactionary and Peggy didn’t even ask a question. Maria wonders where the hell Tony managed to find a prince but Tony has always lived a life that’s hectic. Or he had until he married Steve and got tossed headfirst into what is probably his worst nightmare. He used to talk all the time about how suburbia is where dreams and people who are painfully average go to die. She largely suspects he never thought he’d end up living in a suburb because she certainly hadn’t. She’s sure they both thought Tony would be living some glamorous if a little overindulgent lifestyle unmarried by choice and pleased to be that way.

“How is it possible that these things happen to you?” Peggy asks, apparently determining that Tony’s prince is not a lie.

Tony shrugs, “it hasn’t for the last ten fucking years. So I think it’s the city, not me,” he says.

Peggy shakes her head. “No its you. I’ve never run into a prince let alone cheat on my husband with one.” She gives Maria a look, eyes flicking over to her for a half a second but that’s all Maria needs to know what Peggy wants her to do. Maria shakes her head a little though. Tony has enough problems to deal with, like his long ago failed marriage, why he even stayed in it, and apparently a prince. He doesn’t need to know about her and Peggy too. That’s a whole new mess with several other messes around it mostly thanks to Howard. But they’re working on that and when they’ve got it figured out she’ll tell Tony but for now she needs time to get herself together.

She sees Peggy’s disappointment but she quickly goes back to grilling Tony, who barely even tries to wiggle out of her questions and for that Maria is grateful.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got a lot more of this written and at this rate it'll be done in like 2 days. The muse for this one is strong lol.

Tony feels _way_ too giddy about his meeting T’Challa. It’s stupid, childish really, to be excited but he wants to feel that passion again, that detailed attention T’Challa gave his every reaction. By the time he left yesterday he already missed the way T’Challa ran his hands down Tony’s body, cocky smile on his face as he watched Tony’s reactions. He might have been embarrassed at how easily he responded to T’Challa if not for T’Challa’s clearly pleased and lustful reactions. Besides, today he has a treat that’s mostly for his own benefit but he’s sure T’Challa will enjoy the game.

When T’Challa opens the door Tony literally jumps into his arms, surprising T’Challa, who catches him easily. He supports Tony’s weight with one arm as he closes the door but shifts him slightly when the door clicks shut. “Enthusiastic-“ he starts but wrinkles his nose fast. “Did… you get your husband to scent mark you before you came here?” he asks and Tony grins.

“Yeah. And what are you going to do about it?” he asks, tilting his head to the side in an obvious invitation to scent Tony himself.

T’Challa’s nose loses its wrinkle a little as he eyes Tony’s invitation but he responds to Tony’s question before he acts. “Remove that repugnant scent, for one,” he tells Tony before he presses his face into Tony’s neck, gently nipping at the skin here and Tony shudders. Yeah, this is so worth it. He knows he shouldn’t think it’s worth it but the feel of T’Challa’s teeth and tongue on his neck tells him otherwise and he’s _missed_ the feeling of being desired, _truly_ desired, and he’s always had a thing for being the center of attention. The only thing he’s been the center of for a long time is his own waking nightmare so this… this is improvement. T’Challa carries him over to the bed, carefully dropping him onto it and Tony reaches out immediately, drawing T’Challa back in. “Eager,” T’Challa says softly, pressing a kiss to Tony’s lips and hell _yeah_ he’s eager he’s finally getting the kind of attention he wants.

“You’re so much better than him,” Tony mumbles into the kiss and it’s the right thing to say because T’Challa’s scent takes a sharp turn for the lustful. Tony grins, “all you alphas are so easy,” he says, tilting his head to the side and laughing softly when T’Challa immediately takes the invitation.

“Like you omegas are so much more complicated,” T’Challa tells him, voice in his ear and it makes Tony shiver in anticipation though what exactly he’s anticipating he has no clue.

“We aren’t,” Tony confirms, “but that’s kind of the fun of things, hmm?” T’Challa lifts his head for just a moment to smile at him before he goes back to presumably ridding Tony of Steve’s scent and isn’t that a whole new pleasure onto itself. Sure Tony has gone out of his way to avoid smelling like Steve but he didn’t think to do it like this and now he’s realizing he’s missed out or maybe that’s just because T’Challa has an attention to detail that makes Tony’s toes curl.

*

Tony is not the clingy type, clearly used to American one night stand etiquette, and T’Challa likes that about him too though he does gather his number. Who knows, maybe they’ll find themselves in the same vicinity again and make use of it. Tony clearly hadn’t been opposed to the idea and he leaves satisfied. When he leaves though T’Challa considers the rest of his day- he could do several things that are useful or he could procrastinate. It doesn’t take long for him to decide which of those things he is going to do.

Nakia answers his call punctually and he’s somewhat surprised by it. Usually she either ignores him or she’s too busy to talk to him anyways though she always calls back. “Why do I get the feeling you’ve just gotten yourself into trouble?” she asks in place of a greeting.

T’Challa makes an offended noise. “I have not gotten myself into trouble!” he says in his own defense. Nakia snorts at that, obviously not believing him even though its true.

“Really? Then what’s this Okoye is telling me about some American omega that is _married_?” she asks, judgment coloring her tone unfairly. Its not _his_ fault Tony got married. Frankly he wonders if its Tony’s fault either. Clearly marriage doesn’t suit him.

“Since when does Okoye tattle?” he mumbles more to himself than Nakia.

“ _T’Challa_!” she admonishes, “what is wrong with you? Okoye thinks I can talk you out of this but I think you’re too far gone.”

That’s just rude, T’Challa thinks, because he hasn’t _gone_ anywhere. “It was a one night stand, Nakia. Its hardly a commitment,” he points out.

Nakia lets out another huff, “clearly, your one night stand is currently cheating on _his_ commitment and we both know you’re incapable of making one,” she says.

He gives the phone an offended look. “I am not incapable of making a commitment! I commit to things all the time,” he says. He has several degrees; obviously he has no issue with commitment given how much time they take to get.

“Oh you commit to things that will get you what you want just fine, but committing to things that take work and effort on your part? You’ve never committed to anything like that,” she tells him. “And this omega is not a one night stand, I have it on good authority he just left. Why is it that you always have to go for the ones who are unavailable? Oh wait, because you are unwilling or unable to commit and being unavailable for commitment means you don’t ever have to worry,” she says. He knows she shakes her head at him because he knows her well and he _really_ thinks this lecture is pointless. And somewhat offensive.

“You know I called to talk to an old friend, but if you prefer to lecture me I can call just call my father instead,” he says and Nakia sighs.

“T’Challa, _what_ are you doing?” she asks, a little less judgmental this time but just as confused.

What _is_ he doing he wonders. “I wanted something temporary. This works,” he says in his own defense.

“Then why did you get his number?” Nakia asks and T’Challa gives the door to his room a skeptical look.

“How did Okoye know _that_?” he asks. Its not like she could have seen it.

“She didn’t. I guessed and you confirmed my suspicions. You do this _every_ time T’Challa, you get involved with someone who isn’t going to stick around for one reason or another and it never ends well,” she says.

Speaking from experience considering _she_ is the last person he involved himself with. But it isn’t _his_ fault she wants to save the world instead of just being happy with Wakanda and he hardly sees how Tony is at all reflective of his past relationships let alone his past relationship with her. “Nakia he is an ego boost, lets not act like I’m bringing him home,” he says. Like that would ever happen anyways- Nakia is the only one he’s ever brought home and that hardly went well. Well, didn’t _end_ well, his parents love Nakia.

Nakia sighs, “T’Challa you get attached easily and this is not going to go your way. If this omega had any interest in leaving whatever is making him unhappy in his marriage he would get a divorce. You’re a distraction to him,” she says though not unkindly. The words make him prickle nonetheless.

“And what makes you think he’s not a distraction for me, hmm?” he asks. Because he _is_ \- there’s no way a relationship with Tony could ever work out. Even if he ignored Tony’s marriage there’s still Wakanda to consider. The country would not at all take kindly to him marrying someone who is not Wakandan, plus he’s expected to have children at some point and Tony isn’t about to produce royal heirs. Nakia has always been his end choice- she’s everything he’s wanted but she’s too damn stubborn to stay in one place long enough for him to make something of it. Again, that is not his fault. Or hers really.

“Because you invited him back. You don’t spend more time with a one night stand than you need to, I know you well T’Challa, so tread carefully. And _don’t_ call him. He’s never going to leave his husband anyways,” Nakia says but T’Challa is not so sure. He’s hardly known Tony for long, barely three days, but the difference in scent over the last three days has been staggering. When he had first run into Tony he smelled almost bitter, like slightly too old coffee and now he smells happy, contented. Its hardly like his husband caused the difference.

Once he thinks that it occurs to him that maybe Nakia isn’t entirely wrong but she’s not right either. He just likes the way Tony smells and Tony isn’t exactly unique in that quality- all omegas smell pleasant and some betas too. This will be easy to forget later. “Fine, Nakia. Is my lecture over?” he asks.

“Depends. Are you going to call him?” she asks and he rolls his eyes.

“No, Nakia,” he says. Not unless Tony is in the area, anyways. That makes his intentions rather clear.

*

Home, sweet, home. Tony already wants to throw himself off the second story balcony and he hasn’t even stepped back inside yet. The dog is obviously happy that they’ve returned and he even seems happy to see Tony, which is unusual. He gives the dog some pets because its not really his fault he’s a furry representation of everything Tony fucking hates about his life. Steve is more touchy than usual thanks to him using his body wash, which almost makes his time with T’Challa not worth it. Almost. The saving grace to all this is that Hope at least gave him a project to work on so he won’t be as bored as he usually is.

“Tony,” Steve says, reaching out to him. He tries to catch Tony’s hand but he pulls away before he can manage. Steve looks hurt about it but Tony can’t bring himself to care, which is heartless at best, but he just doesn’t see how Steve doesn’t notice how much he hates their relationship. And why doesn’t _Steve_ hate their relationship? Tony damn well knows he isn’t making this an easy marriage for him so why is he trying so damn hard? Why not just leave? Why doesn’t _Tony_ just leave? That, unfortunately, is a more complicated answer. Steve sighs softly, “I thought maybe we could watch a movie together,” he says softly.

The distance between them feels wider at that even though the distance between them is the length of the dog, who is currently positioned in the middle of small gap. Tony considers maybe just giving in, giving Steve what he wants just so he doesn’t have to hear any more of it or maybe that guilt has shown up a little late who knows. But he knows if he gives Steve an inch he’ll try and take a mile and at that Tony will literally run away- its what he does every morning before Steve can wake up and try and ply a morning kiss out of him.

“I have work to do,” he says because its not really a lie. He has about a million things to test, needs to find a lab to test his theories in, and he has to figure out all the paperwork first.

Steve frowns and for a moment anger flickers across his features. It’s a bad move because Tony’s hackles immediately rise- something the dog seems to sense while Steve remains oblivious. “What the hell do you want, Tony? Before we left I could smell the unhappiness on you, then you start smelling like you actually care about me again, you start using my soap and don’t give me that bullshit about forgetting yours, you could have used the hotel soap. So what the hell is this Tony, because from where I’m standing you can’t seem to make up your mind.”

Tony rolls his eyes, “oh that’s rich coming from the guy who spends most of his time at work and then tries to pretend he loves me at home- you don’t get to leave me here all day like the _dog_ and then pretend you care when you want to get your dick wet,” he snaps, surprised by his own response. He surprises Steve too, and the dog looks confused and a little upset.

“That’s not true at all, Tony! And I’m pretty offended that you’d even think that,” Steve says, voice rising a little to border on shrill.

This results in another eye roll but this one is much more theatrical than the last one. “When’s the last time you’ve taken an interest in something that isn’t my body, hmm? You don’t ask how my day is,” not that he’d like Tony’s honest answer, “you just stick your face in my neck and expect me to like it. No wonder I hate my life,” he mumbles under his breath. Steve isn’t meant to hear it but Tony has always maintained that he has super hearing or something so he hears it anyways and Tony actually does feel a little guilty for the hurt that inspires.

“You hate your life,” Steve states, not asks, because he’s been smelling the proof for years.

“I hate suburbia Steve, if you knew me at all you would have known living here would pretty much suck out my soul. I was never meant to be some fucking house omega, I had actual plans to _do_ something with myself and instead I got stiffed with a _dog_ ,” he says, gesturing to the furry reminder that he’s one kid away from the nuclear family he’s never wanted anything to do with. At least not the same way Steve wants, anyways.

Steve throws his hands up in the air, “and who’s fault is _that_ Tony? I never expected you to be a house omega, you did that to yourself!”

Tony swears that for a moment he sees red. “Uh _no_ , I definitely did _not_ do that fuck you very much,” he snarls. As _if_ he would purposefully confine himself to such a stupid not to mention hellish stereotype. Sure some people are happy living like that, all the power to them if that’s what makes them happy, but Tony has never wanted that for himself and he certainly didn’t purposefully put himself in this position.

“I’m not the one who poured all his energy into learning how to cook and clean instead of my marriage, Tony. That’s on you,” Steve tells him.

“Well _someone_ had to do it!” Tony snaps. “And I focused on you too,” he says though he isn’t so sure that’s true now. Still, marriage is a two way street so if Steve really feels that way he could have said something. Its not Tony’s fault that he didn’t.

“I clean, Tony, lets not act like it was a mandatory thing,” Steve says, rolling his eyes. Sure, once he got home. Tony had been the one to live with it all day and he had no job- he got _bored_ so he found something to do. Its not like the equation here is rocket science- if it was Tony would have preferred it. “And no, you didn’t. You’ve never focused on me, I’m not even sure you focus on _you_ \- its all about whatever it is you’re trying to master this week.”

True, Tony can’t really deny that. But that’s because, “I get bored Steve, I need something to occupy my time with. Figured I might as well be useful if I was going to be stuck here all day,” he mumbles.

Steve rolls his eyes and rubs his temples. “You weren’t _stuck_ here all day, you sequestered yourself here all day and apparently blamed _me_ for it. I didn’t tell you not to do anything useful with your life after Howard Tony, you just accepted defeat. Not _my_ problem!”

The red Tony was seeing before comes back and Tony has to remain silent for a solid thirty seconds before he trusts himself to respond with something that isn’t violence. Sure he was raised by Howard but that doesn’t mean he wants to be anything like him. “Nice to think you think what I’ve done with my life is useless,” he hisses before he walks away. Steve calls after him but Tony allows himself the pleasure of flipping him off before he makes his way to the guest room, wondering why he never thought to sleep there before.

*

Steve has no fucking _idea_ what happened to Tony. When they met he was passion and fire, he had _drive_ and then Howard happened and it was like he just accepted that his old life was over and he gave up on everything in it. Of course he had no idea that Tony blamed _him_ for that until their earlier fight. But it’s not his fault Tony just accepted Howard’s smear campaign and he has no idea why Tony did that either- he’s _never_ been the type to just lay down and accept bad treatment like that. Its why Steve had been drawn to him to begin with. And then he did a one eighty and became everything Steve has never wanted in an omega and watched Tony grow steadily more unhappy until… now really.

He never expected Tony to do any of the things he did after Howard- its not as if Tony had been lacking the intelligence and the drive to prove Howard wrong but he didn’t do that. He accepted what he believed to be his ruined career however brief Steve thought it was going to be at the time and then threw himself into learning how to cook and clean of all things.

It doesn’t excuse Steve’s current actions, but living with someone with a long standing simmering resentment towards you because apparently they blame you for their problems takes a mental toll. Tony knows how to hold a grudge and now he knows why Tony held it against _him_ for some reason instead of Howard. Or maybe he hates Howard too, its always been hard to judge how Tony feels about the man at any given moment. He sighs softly, focusing on his drink for a moment to try and put Tony and whatever the hell is going on with him out of his head. When he looks up he happens to make eye contact with a pretty omega across the bar who holds the eye contact and smiles. Bold move when you’re expected to be demure. Steve feels his face heat a bit and he looks down, knowing he’s played more into omega stereotypes than the actual omega of this situation.

Tony had commented on it the first time they met too, which Steve had found endearing. He’s never liked soft and pliable, it feels cheap to him when its culturally expected, and beyond that he’s never really liked being an authority figure if people weren’t willing to give him at least a little resistance. That felt more like compliance than respect and he hates compliance with a passion. Its why he left the military. When he looks back up the omega is making his way over and wow, bolder move. Steve straightens a little, interested because he’s always had a thing for courage. In the military people liked to tell him it was going to get him killed but that obviously hadn’t been true given his current very much alive status.

“You don’t look very threatened,” the omega notes as he slides into the seat beside Steve’s.

Steve half smiles, “it’d take a lot more than walking over to me to make me feel threatened,” he says, making the omega laugh.

“Most alphas would disagree,” he says and Steve snorts.

“Most alphas are threatened by omegas being anything aside from live sex toys honestly. I’ve always been of the opinion that if free thought is threatening to you than maybe you’re the problem.” Opinions aren’t really a bad thing, especially when most of those opinions revolved around basic respect and dignity. Now if someone thinks that chocolate is gross that’s unforgivable.

The omega grins, “military past?” he asks and Steve feels the surprise on his face. “Don’t look so shocked, that was a pretty patriotic response. Out of curiosity though how far does that free thought thing go? I mean Nazis have thoughts,” he says and Steve rolls his eyes sharply.

“I said freedom of thought, not freedom of hate speech. It should be everyone’s belief that advocating genocide is _not_ an opinion _or_ freedom of thought. Freedom of thought shouldn’t infringe on other people’s basic human rights and if it does its not really free, is it?” The fact that he has to explain this at all is astounding not that the omega agrees with Nazis. Or at least Steve would assume a black man wouldn’t agree with Nazis- its not like they mix well, white supremacy and all. And Nazis don’t mingle well with omegas either- they just barely tolerate betas.

His unasked question is answered with a laugh, “wow, a pretty white alpha who isn’t a total douchebag- looks like I found a unicorn. So what’s wrong with you?” he asks.

Oh, an unhappy marriage to a man that hates him for things that aren’t his fault and a fear of leaving because Tony is the one with all the assets. Nothing too big really. But Steve smiles, “I have plenty of personality flaws, but bigotry isn’t one of them. I’m Steve,” he says.

The omega grins. “Sam. You sure there isn’t anything wrong with you? Because the last guy I met that turned out okay ended up having a weird thing for teeth,” he says. Steve can’t help the laugh he lets out at the look on Sam’s face.

“I don’t have a thing for teeth,” Steve says. “Or most anything people consider strange.” He just has a shitty marriage he isn’t really sure he can leave. Its not like Tony is known for a lack of petty revenge and assholery- that’s about ninety percent of his personality. What makes him curious is why _Tony_ is staying. Steve’s afraid he’ll lose everything in the divorce, what’s keeping Tony around when he’s got everything he needs to go?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have another chapter, I've got a lot of them done lol. This one has actual plot!

Tony needed a lab so he set out to find one. What he ends up with instead is utter dissatisfaction. Killian leans over into Tony’s space and Tony resists the urge to shove him away, “how was that?” he asks and Tony rolls his eyes, noting the time on his phone.

“That was a waste of twenty two minutes of my time, if I include the walk here. I need your lab next week and you owe me after that pitiful attempt at sex. Seriously, you could have at least made the twenty two minutes worth it,” he mumbles. T’Challa managed just fine but this guy? Apparently he’s just pretty. And frankly after Tony’s precious time bit the dust he isn’t even that.

Killian looks offended like most alphas do when you insult them no matter how true the comments are. “If you seriously think-” Tony cuts him off.

“Either lend me your lab or I’ll stage a hostile takeover and we both know which one of us is smarter. You couldn’t manage to hack your way out of a wet paper bag when I knew you in MIT, and I doubt you’ve improved,” Tony tells him, earning a surprised look from Killian. “Yeah, I remembered who you were when I came to terms with the fact that this was going to be an ultimately unsatisfying and irritating encounter five minutes after getting here. And your extremis idea was shit,” he adds, picking up his clothes from the floor and walking out, leaving Killian sputtering.

He’s forgotten how satisfying it is to tell people off, especially if he doesn’t like them. He considers, briefly, calling T’Challa but he doesn’t do that. First of all he had been a pleasant distraction, but he’s not going to answer Tony’s calls. One night, or in their case, weekend stands are not the kinds of things you follow up on even if Tony could use an alpha that _actually_ knows what they’re doing and isn’t Steve. If memory serves, and it does, he’s pretty great but Tony would rather hang himself with the Christmas lights he never wanted. He doesn’t even celebrate Christmas; he’s a fucking atheist.

But he did manage to get himself a lab space and he’s given himself a week to figure everything out and come up with a few methods as well as link Hope in on his progress. She’d been impressed with his work so far and he really had no idea why until she sent back what everyone _else_ had gathered in the last two years. It hadn’t been much. Cross, her partner, is actually pretty close but his particles are far too unstable to be any kind of useful. His work had caused him to raise an eyebrow when he looked into it though, and by looked into it that meant he hacked Cross’ work computer. He has to wonder if Hope knows what he’s been into but he assumes she does given that she’s running Pym Technologies now. He’s not sure how or even _why_ she’d want to weaponize the Pym Particle but he assumes there’s some kind of market for it. His job is to figure out how to recreate Hank’s work, not question Hope’s uses of the work. Even if he _is_ questioning it.

When he makes it back home he starts working on the particles, doing his best to reverse engineer Pym’s work mostly based on pop culture knowledge of the famed fake particles and Darren Cross’ work. Its not especially hard work, he finds, it’s the fact that they’re so unstable that’s the problem. Pym, if he really did make these things, had to have something around to counteract the affects or otherwise temper them. Hope said she saw them in action so he sends off an email asking if Pym had any kind of protective gear or anything else similar when he was working with the particles.

Cross has determined that they’re deadly and Tony has to wonder what he’s testing on so he sends Hope a note to ask that too. ‘Deadly’ implies these things are being tested on something alive and the Cross’ work isn’t developed nearly far enough to be testing on objects let alone lab rats. But maybe he’s misreading the work- for all he knows Cross had been writing down the theoretical and Tony has misinterpreted it. Just in case he asks about the weaponizing too, curious to know how that would even work if nothing else. With that handled he starts theorizing about counteracting the particles to try and stabilize them with an outside force. He hopes it’ll lead to an idea that will help stabilize the particles themselves rather than having to rely on extra equipment but he’ll see.

The last thing he expects is a call from anyone, but when he notes the number he’s even more surprised to find T’Challa calling.

*

T’Challa has been staring at a computer screen all day mostly explaining how vibranium works. In Wakanda this isn’t information that needs to be explained, its all common knowledge, but in America it warrants the in depth explanation. He’s starting to regret writing a thesis on non-colonial technologies and how they have progressed differently than the rest of the world’s tech. So he sits back in his seat and considers his options for a long few moments. He could take a break, he deserves one, or he could go back to working on this damn thesis paper, or he could do something else entirely. What that something else _is_ though he hadn’t been sure until he spies his phone sitting there.

Nakia told him not to call and she’s probably right, its one of her finer qualities, but T’Challa is bored and a little frustrated and he’s curious if Tony is as easy to tease over the phone as he is in real life. He stares at the phone for a solid ten minutes before he throws caution to the wind and calls, figuring if nothing else it will go to voicemail. It doesn’t, Tony answers halfway through the fourth ring and T’Challa smiles. “Not so eager over the phone, hmm?” he says in place of a greeting and Tony laughs.

“My phone was buried under some paperwork. It took a second to locate. If you must know though I’m plenty eager all the time if its worth my time,” Tony says. T’Challa smiles, remembering why he liked Tony so much. The banter is good.

“I take it someone has wasted your time recently?” he asks innocently enough. In actuality he’s curious and a little jealous when he has no right to be. He isn’t even sure where the jealousy is coming from so he elects to ignore it.

Thankfully Tony readily answers his question anyways. “Uh. Needed some lab space and thought hey, the ugly ducking got hot, might as well right? Wrong. Total fucking waste of my time- I’m never going to get those minutes back,” Tony says, irritated and T’Challa raises an eyebrow.

“Minutes?” he asks. That must be some kind of exaggeration.

“Minutes,” Tony confirms, “approximately fifteen of them if I don’t count the walk to his place. Its not even like fifteen minutes can’t be made worth it either, you managed to make a small amount of minutes worth my time,” he points out and T’Challa does his best not to feel that ego boost but he knows he’s failing. Its hardly his fault an attractive omega has complimented him and he’s reacted, that’s biology right? Or psychology. Probably a mix of both. Actually mostly psychology but still, T’Challa has always appreciated winning and he’s never really been a good sport about it either. But if he’s the best he sees to real reason not to take pride in it.

“Well, not everyone can be me,” T’Challa says, cocky smile in place.

Tony laughs on the other end of the phone. “Apparently not. And here I thought maybe I reacted so strongly to you because I was clearly touch starved. Pretty sure that problem isn’t solved so looks like I’m still notoriously hard to please,” he says.

“Or you know, I’m that good,” T’Challa says, resulting in another laugh from Tony.

“Don’t let it get to your head honey, big egos aren’t a good look on anyone. But yeah, basically. Maybe its because you were the first since Steve…” Tony mumbles mostly to himself.

Despite Tony’s warning against ego T’Challa smiles, pleased to know that of all the people Tony could have had, and that’s near anyone considering how attractive he is, he chose T’Challa specifically. “I suppose I’m just special, then,” he says, “being the first and all.”

“Well, if you want to feed your ego you’re definitely the hottest. Steve is like… corn field hot,” Tony says and T’Challa snorts.

“Corn field _what_?” he asks. “What kind of attractiveness measure are you using?” he asks. And where does he fall on it? High according to Tony’s own estimations, but what does that look like exactly?

Tony sighs, “you know. Rural Midwest, lots of corn, guys working in fields. Corn field hot,” he says like this is a totally normal measure of attractiveness.

“I have never been to the Midwest but it doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience,” T’Challa says. He wants to ask what kind of hot he is but Tony chooses to speak first.

“Its not. There’s corn. Anyways you have to have heard of this. I mean haven’t you ever seen someone who’s gas station hot?” he asks and T’Challa starts laughing.

“What? _No_. What does that even mean? What are the qualifiers?” he asks, curious.

Tony lets out another sigh, this one a little exasperated. “You know, you’ve been driving for some time and you haven’t seen a human being for awhile so by the time you run into any semblance of civilization even the gas station attendant looks hot. You know the type, probably white, has an okay face but not great, decent build but is pretty average. They all look exactly alike but if you haven’t been around people for awhile they’re hot even though normally they’re painfully average,” he says.

T’Challa has never heard of this in his life but its highly amusing. “Wakanda is not big enough to not see civilization for a long period of time. Maybe an hour, but that’s it,” he says and Tony lets out a loud snort.

“Fuck, you could drive for three days through Texas and by the time the third day is up you’ll be ready to fuck the tumbleweeds because that’s all that’s around,” Tony says. T’Challa frowns, unable to comprehend that though he has learned that driving in America means counting how many McDonald’s or Walmarts you pass before you reach your destination.

“America needs to calm down,” is what he says though, which inspires a snicker from Tony.

“Well, you know what they say. Everything is bigger in Texas. Which isn’t really false either,” he says.

So T’Challa knows. “America’s obsession with big things is confusing. And deep fried things though you guys may be on to something there,” he says. Deep fried pickles, in theory, sound disgusting but in practice they’re too good, he has to avoid them now because he’ll eat far too many.

“Yeah, well who doesn’t love a tasty treat,” Tony says, a touch of a suggestive lilt in his voice and T’Challa’s lips tip up a little.

Hmm, true and Tony is too good to pass up. “You certainly are irresistible,” T’Challa tells him, pleased when he hears Tony let out a soft sigh. So he is just as easy to tease over the phone as he is in person. Fantastic. He sits back in his desk chair and considers how he wants to tease Tony, or more accurately which method will get him what he wants faster.

*

Shit, T’Challa has an attractive voice. Its deep, alluring, and most importantly he spends almost twenty minutes telling Tony how attractive he is, how his scent is alluring, and what he’d like to do to Tony if he was actually there. He really can’t be blamed for being sucked in, T’Challa is descriptive and Tony knows reality lives up to talk so that just makes things all the better. “That,” T’Challa says, “is how you make fifteen minutes of your time worth it.”

Tony looks at the clock and snorts, “I can’t believe you timed that. But yeah, you should teach lessons or something,” he murmurs, contented and pliable. Too bad T’Challa isn’t actually around; Tony would appreciate being pet right about now.

“Well, if I was going to prove a point I figured I should at least keep track of the time. I do wish you were here though, you must smell delectable right about now.” Yeah, he’s sure he does and he’s surprised by how much he wants T’Challa to run his hands along his body, to mix their scents. That’s actually never been something Tony’s cared much about. Sure scent is supposedly important and omegas are more attuned to scent than betas, and alphas are more aware of scent too, but its not something he’s ever lingered on. Now his mind is stuck on it.

He lets out a soft sigh, “I wish I smelled like you,” he murmurs softly and he gets the pleasure of hearing T’Challa’s breath hitch. “You smell sweet, like cinnamon. Its intoxicating,” he says in a purposefully breathy tone that has T’Challa’s breath catching again. Alphas, so easy. “And since you like proving points I’ve been told I smell more like metal than anything else if I spend too much time in a lab. Wonder if you could change that,” he murmurs.

T’Challa lets out a soft huff, “I think I already proved my point there,” he says.

Tony smiles, “hmm, not well enough. The shower pretty much got rid of you. Maybe you should work to make yourself more permanent,” he tells T’Challa.

“Hmm, maybe I should,” he says back.

“I’d let you too- never really had a thing for being marked but the thought of you sinking into my skin, mmm,” he moans softly. “The only thing better would be an actual mark, something to tell the world I’m yours,” he says and T’Challa lets out a soft ‘oh’. Tony grins, shaking his head. “I hope you know you literally just came to your own scent. Talk about jerking yourself off in more ways than one,” he says and T’Challa makes an offended noise.

“How did you go from that, to _that_? Don’t ruin my afterglow with your bad puns,” he says. He’s sure their earlier conversation helped him out a little but still, Tony just had to point it out.

Tony can’t help the laugh that escapes him, “honey, its not my fault its true. And consider the subject change a talent of omegas. I once had an extended sexting session where I ate nachos and watched cheesy horror movies, completely unbothered,” he says. At least by the sexting- the zombies had him shrieking.

“I love horror!” T’Challa says enthusiastically, like some kind of freak.

He wrinkles his nose, “I hate it. Why do people _like_ being scared?” Or like being chased around by serial killers, if it’s a slasher. Not his taste that’s for sure- he’s more of an action movie kind of guy and, if he’s very drunk or maybe brain damaged, he’ll admit to enjoying musicals.

“You’ve only been subjected to American horror- this country’s horror genre is a hot mess. And I don’t enjoy being frightened, I just think the genre is neat,” T’Challa says.

Tony pulls the phone from his ear to give it a _look_. “You need to work on your movie taste, honeybee. Bad action movies all the way,” he says. He’s always fond of anything with explosions.

“Well you need to work on your post phone sex talk. This conversation has been a roller coaster ride and I don’t know how to feel about it,” T’Challa says and Tony laughs.

“Only because I told you you got off to your own scent and you were mad about it. Not my fault,” Tony sing songs.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Steve and Tony's relationship nosedives hard and Tony finally starts getting his groove back.

When Steve gets home he’s grateful that Tony typically avoids him given that he smells far too much like Sam to go unnoticed. When he opens the door though he almost drops his coat because the living room is a _disaster_. There’s papers strewn about all over the place, pillows on the floor, and the dog is nowhere to be found. “Tony!” he calls, hoping like _hell_ he’s okay because if he’s not Steve really only has himself to blame. Tony doesn’t respond and Steve panics a little, hoping there’s some explanation for this but Tony is _meticulously_ clean. So much so that he puts the military to shame when it comes to cleanliness standards.

He moves further into the house that’s dead silent, his heartbeat getting faster when he checks the bedroom for Tony. He’s not here but Steve remembers a little too late that he had taken off to the guest room so he checks there, letting out a soft noise of pain when he finds Tony face down on the bed, sprawled on it like he’s been tossed there. “Tony!” he asks, rushing up and shaking his shoulder, hoping for the best.

Thankfully Tony rouses basically immediately but Steve regrets his worry almost instantaneously when Tony glares at him and waves him off. “Jesus Christ Steve, can’t you leave a guy to sleep?” he mumbles.

“I thought you were dead!” Steve says in his own defense. “The living room is a mess.” The logical explanation had been a break in and potential murder and Tony is pissed off that he had the audacity to _care_? This is why he sought Sam out. Or more accurately Sam sought him out but still; point was Steve is hardly getting any kind of positive _anything_ at home.

“I’m working on those particles,” Tony mumbles into his pillow, already almost asleep again. “Don’t touch anything,” he adds and then he’s fallen back asleep. He hasn’t even noticed that Steve smells like some other omega, clearly too caught up in yet another fucking project that means Steve gets ignored for another year. He knows that’s a piss poor excuse for his actions- cheating is a horrible thing. But sometimes he wonders if staying is worse.

The plus side is that the dog must have heard the commotion and came out from wherever he was hiding to greet Steve with more affection and attention than Tony could muster on a good day.

*

Tony stages a hostile takeover of Killian’s lab early and watches all the interns whine about it because he finds it amusing. Turns out he has an entire team trying to balance his stupid extremis formula- it keeps blowing shit up- and Tony finds that right fucking funny. Especially when he manages what Killian has been attempting for twenty years in literally five minutes. Had he kept Maya on his team he might have gotten further but Tony would recognize her work and it isn’t here. Too bad for Killian, Maya is smarter than he’ll ever be. But he leaves the interns to bitch about their lab space being stolen while he experiments and waits for Killian to inevitably show up.

By the time he does Tony has scrapped three formulas, found a working one he doesn’t like thanks to the highly unpredictable and unstable nature of the Pym Particles, and he’s on his way to testing a few other ideas including that balanced extremis formula. Killian obviously tries to get into the lab and obviously he fails so while Tony tests his Pym Particle stabilizing attempt number one he goes and finds that plant to inject it with his improved and not explode-y extremis formula. He stands in front of the window looking into the lab, plant in hand before he injects it, watching with amusement as every single intern in that room presses into the glass, screaming at him. He can’t hear their shrieking through the glass thankfully but he finds it fun to watch as their panic rises when he pets the leaves of the small plant, waving their hands around especially when it starts to glow a little.

He’s sure that one of them has left the window to go grab a chair to break the glass or something, which wouldn’t even save his life even _if_ the intern managed to get through, when the plant stabilizes and they all stare in shock at it. He drops the plant in front of the window and grabs a pair of scissors, cutting a leaf in half and watching with a smile as it grows back pretty much instantly. And look at that, he just saved the rainforests with this. Too bad Killian is going to have to credit him with almost everything, and what credit he doesn’t get Maya will. The ideas Killian attempted to further weren’t his own- they were hers. Fucking idiot. When he returns to his particles though he’s annoyed to discover that they’ve failed and his test plant is now a small patch of goo on the table. Well that’s unfortunate. But it does at least tell him that he’s going in the right direction, he’s just missing something.

Loud banging on the door disrupts his observations and he rolls his eyes, letting Killian in because he might as well let him see the living proof that his life’s work was solved in five minutes by one bored omega taking over his lab. Killian shoves him hard out of his way and Tony stumbles but catches himself, “rude,” he tells Killian. “And you’re welcome for being better at science than you,” he adds. “Took me five damn minutes- maybe you should take note on how a small amount of time can be made worth it.”

Killian gives him an absolutely _poisonous_ glare that Tony doesn’t really take to heart. “If you think for one fucking second I am giving you any credit you are delusional,” he snarls.

Tony grins, “then I hope you’re willing to pay off all your witnesses, and the cameras,” he adds, nodding to the corner of the room. “Pretty sure the courts will find video evidence compelling even if you did manage to pay your interns off, but I happen to know you have no more grant money. So sad,” Tony tells him, fake pouting. He’s about ninety percent sure Killian would have tried to murder him on the spot if there weren’t ten interns watching them at the moment.

“So all those rumors about your genius are true,” one brave soul says.

Tony shrugs, “seems so, yeah.”

“What were you testing? Aside from extremis,” another adds.

“Pym Particles,” says another and Tony raises an eyebrow at the brunette, who shrugs. “What? I read,” she says.

Tony frowns, “on Pym Particles?” he asks. Odd thing to read on when most think they’re a myth, even he thought that until he started doing the work required to make them and now maintain them.

Another student rolls his eyes, “on anything that’s obviously pseudoscience,” he says.

“Well he made them so its not pseudoscience,” the brunette says, “we all watched the plant shrink.”

“Actually you watched my experiment fail but you know. I solved one problem today; guess I didn’t need to solve two. And you are?” he asks, curious about the intern.

She smiles and extends her hand, “Jane Foster. Normally I do astrophysics but my funding was cut so I’m here and now his funding is cut so guess I need to find something new,” she says, frustration leaking into her tone a little despite the smile.

Tony shakes her hand. “You seem promising. I happen to know Hope van Dyne personally; I’ll have her look into you. She’s always looking for bright new minds and I’m sure Pym wasn’t hiring swaths of women,” he says, rolling his eyes. Jane, however, looks ecstatic.

“ _Ha_ , in your _faces_!” she says, looking pleased with herself. Tony laughs, happy he could help even if nothing was guaranteed. He’s always liked pissing people off and he’s forgotten how amusing it can be.

“Good luck printing my name on all your research Killian, I’ll be back tomorrow,” Tony tells him, blowing a kiss to him before he leaves to a sound track of interns snickering.

*

Hope looks over Tony’s email and frowns. None of what he’s saying is making any sense- deadly? Weaponize? She has no interest in any of those things so what the hell is he talking about? She looks through all her files on the Pym Particles and what little she managed to dig up out of her father’s work and finds nothing to suggest Pym Particles were either deadly or turned into weapons. Her father’s work in particular expressed a paranoia around the particles being misused but there’s nothing else to back up Tony’s odd email.

It’s Rhodey who suggests Cross. Hope hadn’t thought of him because he said he hadn’t been making progress with the particles but maybe whatever she gave Tony suggests otherwise. What she finds surprises her though, and not in a good way.

*

Tony moves all his work to the basement to keep Steve from losing his shit on him and annoying him again and while he’s at it he moves all his stuff to the guest room too. He has no idea why he’s never considered it before but he sure as hell isn’t going back now. Steve keeps his distance more than usual but after a couple days Tony stops noticing, too immersed in his work to care what Steve’s doing. He works long hours anyways, its not like he’s missing much at home and Tony has no interest in filling his blanks anyways.

He does, however, make a good amount of progress with the Pym Particles. He’s figured out how to stabilize them, kind of, and he’s stolen Killian’s lab to test his work. Oddly enough that’s gathered attention too, people sometimes show up to watch him work, ask questions and Tony’s surprised to find that they listen. Some stick around for demonstrations too. He doesn’t let himself think that means anything at the moment and he’s got the particles to take up his time. That could be why he doesn’t expect Hope’s call.

“Tony what exactly have you read in Darren Cross’ research?” she asks.

He frowns, wondering where this is coming from. “Well, mostly that he thinks the particles are deadly and has some basic weapons designs. Nothing good I can tell you that now- nothing he’s designed will properly withstand the usage of the Pym Particles. They’re pretty unstable. I hate to say this Hope, but I can see why Hank didn’t want people to get ahold of these things- prolonged exposure is likely to fuck with brain function. I’m trying to temper the effects but I’m a genius, not a miracle worker,” he says. Plus there are the effects of growing and stretching too fast but he’s mostly mitigated those thankfully.

“Tony I never wanted to weaponize them and I’ve never tested anything to do with them. Whatever research you’ve read isn’t anything I okayed,” she says and he sits up.

“What do you need me to do?” he asks but he’s already pulled his computer towards him, typing fast and its not hard to get past Hope’s firewalls. Cross specifically is a little more difficult to crack but he’s already working around getting in by the time Hope is done her quiet deliberation.

“I need you to get me everything he has on the-” Hope starts but Tony sucks in a gasp.

“Hope he’s been testing these things on _sheep_. None of them have lived. And I’ve got… I think you need to call someone that isn’t me. Shit, call Rhodey or something I don’t know but you need actual law enforcement. I’ll get the evidence you need,” he tells her. They won’t tell the cops how they got it obviously and- Tony gets an idea. “Wait, wait, wait,” he says thankfully right before Hope hangs up. “Call my aunt Peggy. Just trust me on this,” he tells her. She doesn’t know about SHIELD but Tony happens to know they deal with stuff like this. It makes sense to call them before anyone else and they’ll be much more discreet about their findings. Means Hope doesn’t have to deal with a media fiasco that will potentially tank her newly acquired company. He doesn’t want to see her fail, not like this. Or preferably at all.

She agrees and in the meantime Tony calls Rhodey to tell him about the situation. Someone should probably keep him up to date and Tony can pretty much guarantee that Hope is going to have to play nice with Cross for a couple days at least. He should probably know his wife is in a good amount of danger.

*

Tony is eyeballs deep in digital files thanks to Peggy recruiting him to find information on Cross, which leads to information on HYDRA, which leads to a new HYDRA spin off called AIM, which leads him to _Killian_ when T’Challa calls again. “Hey,” Tony says distractedly, reading through how his- _his_ \- extremis formula is going to be used in ways it so is not intended to be used. He sends it all to Peggy and Agent, who he hates, and then sends a note that he’s scrambled the information on AIMs end. Fuck those guys for trying to steal his shit. And Fuck Killian for his bad attempt at a digital trail to set _Tony_ up to take the fall. Stupid fuck, he really should figure out who the smarter one is here and its not him.

“You’re distracted,” T’Challa states, not asks.

“I’m eyeballs deep in catching Nazis being ass- that’s a US senator! Okay you know _what_ ,” he starts and then stops, outing every piece of dirty laundry, which is a _lot_ , on that guy out. Let him deal with the mass media fallout of everyone finding out he’s a Nazi piece of shit in the morning. Then he sends everything to Peggy and Agent with a sorry not sorry note referencing him ruining that fuckhead’s life. Not Tony’s fault he decided to be a Nazi.

“Nazis? Are playing a video game?” T’Challa asks and Tony stops to consider things for a moment, pushing his computer away because he had forgotten that Wakanda hadn’t exactly been that open to the public at that time.

He sighs, “no unfortunately I am talking about actual Nazis. Long story that started with unethical sheep experiments,” he says. Put like that it sounds so ridiculous it’d have to be a lie but thankfully T’Challa doesn’t take it as one.

“You… are an unusual house omega,” he says finally and Tony lets out a laugh.

“Oh this isn’t me being a house omega, this is me accidentally finding out HYDRA, World War Two Nazi group-” he explains but T’Challa cuts him off.

“Yes I am aware of the events of World War Two- Wakanda was closed off to the world, not ignorant of it. Though HYDRA dissipated when Hitler committed suicide, yes?” he asks like he doesn’t have the details.

As far as history books go he isn’t wrong. “We thought so but- okay that’s classified and I didn’t know about it until,” Tony checks the time and date and _shit_ , two days have passed? Where is Steve? Usually he doesn’t stay away this long though Tony can say he really misses him. Harsh, but true nonetheless. Hopefully he’s gotten himself a hobby that’s more fulfilling than their marriage, that wouldn’t be difficult to do honestly. “Two days ago. Short answer is no, they didn’t dissipate they went underground and now they have the audacity to claim they aren’t Nazis. The _balls_ ,” Tony says more to himself than T’Challa.

“I am… completely lost here. I uh… called because I’m fairly certain I’m close to where you live,” he says. “But you seem rather distracted.” The last bit comes out a little irritated but Tony gives T’Challa credit for trying to hide it. Not much, but a little.

He considers his options for a few moments before shrugging. Steve isn’t around, presumably hasn’t been around for days if he isn’t chasing Tony out of the basement like he used to when Tony had a lab. He’s not going to get this free time forever so he might as well use it. “Where are you?” he asks T’Challa, putting effort into his words so T’Challa knows he’s interested.

*

Steve is great and Sam is suspicious. He’s like a damn unicorn- funny, smart, not a douchebag, and they have the same taste in foods and movies. Something has to be wrong with him but he can’t help but enjoy his company. He doesn’t find people who aren’t immediately put off by his having a personality often, especially because he has little interest in pussyfooting around dating and expectations. Steve takes it all in without complaint, mostly agreeing and asking questions about what he doesn’t agree with. Its good, pleasant even and Sam is wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. So Steve doesn’t have a thing for teeth but he knows he has _something_.

At first Sam wonders if maybe he’s being too paranoid but when small things start adding up he’s not so sure. Mostly Steve’s home life that he never talks about. He lives in a suburb with a dog that mysteriously doesn’t seem to miss him when he’s gone, which is more often than not, and when Sam asks questions about it Steve changes the subject. So there’s something but for all Sam knows he has a sick mother and doesn’t want to talk about it, Riley had that, so he doesn’t want to press for details but he also has a keen sense for things that don’t make sense. So which does he listen to? Logic or what he wants to be true?

Momentarily its what he wants to be true because he kind of likes the feeling of leaning against Steve with his arm wrapped around Sam’s waist. Its been a long time since he’s had any kind of casual intimacy in his life and Steve is a naturally touchy person so it works out. “I can’t believe you like this shit,” Steve tells him and Sam makes an offended noise.

“Bond is classic! You like spy movies,” Sam says, scandalized by the knowledge that Steve doesn’t enjoy probably _the_ most iconic spy of all time.

“He’s a misogynistic prick,” Steve says, wrinkling his nose at the screen.

“He’s a product of his time,” Sam corrects. “I mean you’re right but also he’s a spy so I’m willing to overlook it.” Steve squints at him suspiciously. “What? We all have things we like that we know we shouldn’t like. I’m sure you have one,” he says and Steve looks away so he knows he’s right. “Spit it out Stevie, what’s your problematic poison?”

Steve lets out a long, haunted sigh and Sam knows its gunna be bad. Like Fifty Shades of Grey bad or maybe worse. “Eminem,” he says and Sam lets out another offended noise.

“Oh you did _not_ just criticize Bond for being a misogynist and then say you like a dude who’s music career is built off beating his ex and also stealing from black people! No, no Steve, you had your shot at proving that your problematic fav was lesser than mine and you shat the bed hard core. We are watching every single Bond film I have, which is all of them, and you get to suffer with the knowledge that I know you like Eminem,” he says. He doesn’t say that he also has a guilty pleasure for Eminem. Not a lot of his music, but some of it. Steve doesn’t need to know that Sam is just as trash a person as he is though because he currently has the moral high ground and its getting him time with Steve watching every Bond film ever made. He’s going to have to watch all the shitty ones too, just for fun.

“You’re a pain in my ass,” Steve says, pulling Sam a little closer and pressing his face into Sam’s hair.

“Excuse you, you don’t like Bond. I think I am the more inconvenienced one,” he jokes, smiling as Steve laughs a little. Things are nice like this, comfortable. He knows Steve is hiding something but he’s hoping its not something huge. Or at least not the kind of huge that would matter to him or their relationship.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Tony's relationship devolves more and poor T'Challa makes an uncomfortable realization.

Tony ends up explaining most of his newfound work to T’Challa, who finds his blowing a kiss at Killian hilarious. He seems a little less uptight after that, which Tony appreciates because he doesn’t have much patience for ego- ironic considering his own- and T’Challa had been stretching his limits. Their conversation about Tony’s new project does eventually fall to the wayside though, which is how Tony finds himself curled into T’Challa’s side less touch starved and more regular starved. He’s mostly asleep thanks to T’Challa tiring him out but the warm feeling of T’Challa running his finger tips down Tony’s arm is soft and pleasant so he lingers a little in consciousness to feel it for a few more moments.

He knows he should probably leave, go home and shower T’Challa’s scent off before Steve gets suspicious but he doesn’t. Stupid, but he’ll do the walk of shame thing in the morning when he’s more coherent. “Why do you stay with your husband?” T’Challa asks after a long while and Tony is sure he thinks he’s asleep but he’s not.

“Didn’t sign a prenup,” he mumbles. “I don’t want to lose half of what I’ve got left.” Otherwise he would have left years ago.

T’Challa surprises him, and probably himself, with his next sentence. “I would take care of you,” he says softly but Tony snorts.

“Baby we’re a distraction to each other, not a relationship. I can take care of myself,” he murmurs, falling away from consciousness as T’Challa’s fingers stop moving along his arm. He doesn’t notice that as sleep finally drags him under.

*

 _We’re a distraction to each other_. The words shouldn’t bother T’Challa but they do. He doesn’t want to be a distraction to Tony, some kind of escape from his life at home and he doesn’t know when he stopped thinking of Tony as an escape from his life. That’s what he was meant to be, T’Challa knows things would never work out between them but now he wants to try. When he says that to Tony though he gets a smile he knows all too well- the one older adults get when talking to children and it annoys T’Challa. He’s not a _child_.

“T’Challa, you only like me because I’m an experience, one that will piss people at home off. I might only know about five things about Wakanda, but I know they don’t like foreigners and they sure as hell wouldn’t like me. Whatever this infatuation is it’ll pass,” Tony says but T’Challa already knows that’s not true. But if he says it he’ll look more like the child Tony clearly thinks he is and he _resents_ that- why is it that people always seem to come to this conclusion about him?

“I… don’t think that’s true,” he says finally because he has no other way to put it.

Tony seems to contemplate this for a moment, tilting his head to the side like he’s seriously considering T’Challa and it takes him a moment to realize he _is_ actually seriously considering him. “We don’t really share much of anything besides body fluids T’Challa, so what makes you think you like anything about me? You probably couldn’t even tell me basic things about me like my middle name, or my favorite color. I don’t know those things about you,” he says. “You can’t have more than an infatuation with someone you don’t actually know.”

He wants to argue with that but its true and Tony knows it, so he leaves T’Challa to stew in it. When he goes T’Challa sighs, sitting on the bed in his hotel room to think. For a long moment he has no idea what he’s going to do but the solution comes easily enough- he will do what he always does when things like this happen. Call Nakia.

*

Nice house, good neighborhood, cute dog, still weirdly secretive about what goes on at home, but Steve’s life is pretty set. Even the bed is nicer than anything Sam’s ever owned. “So are you a dog person or a cat person?” Steve asks and Sam laughs at the absurdity of it.

“I’m a bird person,” he says. “I have a lovely falcon named Red Wing but she’s been at the vet- unfortunate incident that resulted in surgery but she’ll be ready to come home by the end of the week.” That had been why he’d been in the bar he met Steve in to begin with- he figured a good few drinks and a pretty alpha to take home might make him less sad about Red Wing. Poor bird, he’d been worried she was going to die but she’s tough so she hung in there and she’s fine now, at least considering the circumstances. He’s got his work cut out for him rehabilitating her but he’s fine with that. Gives him something to do with his time when he’s not at work.

Steve laughs, “a _bird_ person?” he asks. “How’d you figure that out?”

Sam smiles, “my mom owned budgies. She was allergic to cats and dogs so birds it was.” Truthfully he hadn’t been fond of dogs or cats anyways so it worked out in the end. Besides, birds are a totally normal and acceptable pet that is nothing like Natasha’s disgusting habit of keeping spiders. Black Widows are her favorites but she’s not too picky and has a couple tarantulas too. Sam is of the belief that if your spider takes up the majority of your dinner plate or even _any_ of your dinner plate you need to throw that thing out a window. They don’t even take fall damage; they’d hit the ground and keep going.

Arachnids are not his thing and Natasha has told him many times that spiders can’t help looking like that and are actually a pretty loving group of… bugs. She’s probably right but Sam has years of social conditioning and one bad trip to Australia holding him back from even being fond of the critters.

“I had a friend who owned budgies. They’re really annoying,” Steve says and Sam makes an offended noise.

“Excuse you, budgies are no more annoying than any other house pet. Those budgies probably thought you were annoying,” he says, defending the birds’ honor.

Steve laughs, “probably, all they did was squawk at me for the entire time I was around them. Clearly they didn’t like me much,” he says.

“The birds knew something was wrong with you,” Sam jokes and Steve snorts and starts laughing. Granted Sam didn’t expect the birds to prove him right a half an hour later but it had been funny at the time.

*

When Tony gets home he runs, literally, straight into Steve. He probably wouldn’t have thought much of it except Steve looks like the dog does when he gets into the damn garbage again and that makes Tony frown. “Why are you looking at me like- who is that?” Tony asks, nodding to the attractive black guy lounging on the couch, noticing him _way_ too late. He needs to work on his basic observation skills.

Steve lets out a long, thin squeak but his companion catches up quick, giving Steve a look that’s so unimpressed that Tony wants to learn how to emulate it for pissing people off purposes. “Let me guess, he’s _married_ ,” he says and Tony shrugs.

“Yeah, kinda. You are?” he asks.

“I am out of here,” the other guy says and Tony nods, appreciating the sass. At least Steve has decent taste and he should probably be pissed off right now. But realistically he has no right to be and he doesn’t really care what Steve does with his time normally, does he really have a right to care now just because he’s… doing exactly what Tony did? Obviously that’s a no.

Steve’s companion pauses on his way to leave though, glancing between the two of them and squinting suspiciously, “wait, what the hell is this? I’m I like… some kind of cuckhold? Is this because I’m black?” he says, moving to race so fast Tony has to blink rapidly in an attempt to keep up because _what_? He goes to answer that he has no idea what a cuckhold is but he’s interrupted, “you know what, fuck you both. I knew there was something wrong with you,” he tells Steve before he storms out in an impressive display.

Tony watches him go for a moment before he turns back to Steve, who still looks guilty. “Tony, I-” he starts but Tony waves him off.

“Whatever, I don’t care what you do but maybe follow cheating 101 rules and don’t fucking bring them home, dipshit. Seriously, don’t you know anything about sneaking around?” he asks, shaking his head. Steve stares at him, shocked at his reaction or maybe his lack of reaction. “What?” he asks finally. “Its not like I’m under some delusion that this is a marriage built on love and trust.” And also he’d be a hypocrite to care.

Steve sputters for a moment, clearly shocked. “I uh, um, what?” he finally gets out and Tony rolls his eyes.

“You want to fuck around, be my guest. Just don’t bring them home- first of all I caught you and also we live in a suburb, all the neighbors are named ‘Janet’ and they talk. I don’t want the five hundred Janets next door telling me what a dog you are so get a hotel you damn animal,” Tony tells him. If he had known in ten years he’d be giving his husband cheating advice he… probably wouldn’t have gotten married. Or laughed at the idea of loyal, loving Steve sneaking around behind his back. That’s more something he would do than Steve to be honest- something he _did_ do.

Steve lets out a long sigh, “I brought him home because he wasn’t a fling,” he says softly, like this would be worse. In a way it is, or it would be if Tony held any emotional attachment to their marriage, but he doesn’t.

“Maybe next time consider either giving the guy a heads up or giving me a heads up if you want to avoid embarrassment. You don’t bring home the mistress- this is _common sense_ ,” Tony explains, rolling his eyes. “Seriously, you are not normally this stupid.” If he was Tony would have no interest in him, well, he wouldn’t have had a previous interest in him. But he is under the impression that Steve knows basic things like don’t bring the mistress home. Or whatever the guy equivalent to that is.

Apparently Steve loses his patience because anger flickers across his features, “you know I’m getting real tired of your name calling,” he says and Tony rolls his eyes so hard it’s a wonder they don’t pop out of his head and roll out the door after Steve’s affair.

“You brought home your dirty laundry, I’m entitled. Seriously, what’s next? Fucking him in my bed?” he asks and Steve looks away. “ _Seriously_?” he asks. “What the hell is wrong with you? At least I used a hotel like a normal person participating in extramarital affairs! That’s so disrespectful.”

“You don’t even sleep there,” Steve says in his own defense and Tony lets out an offended noise.

“I slept in the guest room _twice_ and fell asleep in the basement a few times but sure, move your new relationship in. Jesus, would you even wait for my body to get cold before you threw your mistress in the coffin after me?” he asks. He doesn’t know why he’s so pissed off at that, or if its just the symbolism that pisses him off, or maybe something else entirely but that’s just… _rude_. Its rude and Steve shouldn’t have to be told that, it should be obvious.

“You don’t bury two people in one coffin Tony, that analogy makes no sense,” Steve says.

“Its popular lexicon, asshole, Google it if you’ve finally figured out how technology works,” he snaps. Sure the way he said it was wrong, but ‘would you steal my grave just as quick’ is a normal saying if Steve cared to look it up, assuming the keyboard doesn’t confuse him.

“Oh I don’t want your creepy AI presiding over our lives and you go an act like I’m a damn Luddite- I know how to use Google Tony, I’m not _dead_ ,” Steve snaps back.

“JARVIS was important to me!” Tony says. Not that Steve understood that considering he had compared it to that fucking novel by that one guy. 1984, that’s it. “You never understood that, you don’t understand anything about me.”

Steve rolls his eyes, “oh not understanding your connection to _one_ thing obviously means I know nothing about you- how far do you get with that simple minded logic?” Steve asks and if Tony were a kettle he’d be whistling so loud the dog would have to flee the house.

“Technology was my _life_ ,” Tony yells, “so if you don’t understand my connection to it you don’t understand me as a person, thanks. I poured _everything_ I had into what I made, I thought I was going to change the world with what I built and you dismissed it all as simple trinkets. You clearly didn’t get that I put a little bit of who I am into _everything_ I built. So sue me for being pissed off that you didn’t understand the biggest part of what made me _me_. How’s _that_ for simple logic,” Tony snarls, walking away from Steve before this went from bad to worse.

He’s vibrating with anger when Steve locates him again, looking sorry but only because he’s been told he’s wrong, not because he’s actually learned something and that pisses Tony off more. “Where are you going?” he asks when he notices Tony’s bag.

“To my mothers,” he snaps, “so feel free to grow a harem when I’m gone.” It’s a stupid, petty comment that’s kind of childish but Tony is mad. And he has no idea how things even devolved into this mess to begin with. Steve has _barely_ done more than Tony as far as affairs go but… but he has to go. Be anywhere but here, and Steve can probably use the space too. Maybe his lover will come back and he can figure out what the fuck a cuckhold is.


	7. Chapter 7

Its as good a time as any, Peggy figures, to tell Tony about her relationship with Maria. Sure he’s pissed off at Steve and Maria tried to use that as an excuse to not tell him for a little longer but Peggy is both tired of the charade and tired of Tony’s moping around. Tony needs to grow up and Maria… Peggy understands that she worries that Tony will take Howard’s side in this whole mess but he would never do that. Tony has never like Howard, even if he spent years vying for his attention, and when it comes down to it Peggy _knows_ that Tony would never leave Maria behind in favor of his father. And that _is_ what he’d have to do if Howard were to have his way. He seems to be under the impression that Tony will side with him but Peggy knows that Tony doesn’t know about his parent’s upcoming divorce pretty much only because Howard doesn’t have Tony’s number. Shows what kind of parent he is.

Tony looks between the two of them “what? Did someone die?” he asks, resorting to a joke just like he always does.

Maria sighs, “no, Tony, no one is dead,” she tells him.

“Yet,” Peggy adds because she’s been itching to murder Howard for years. Only reason she hasn’t is because it’d be easy to trace it back to her and she’s smarter than that. Maria sighs, having long ago accepting that Peggy hates Howard even if she disapproves. She has a capacity for forgiveness that extends _far_ beyond Peggy’s. There were several things Howard did to Maria before he hit her that she would have never forgave, and hitting Tony would have been an offense that would have resulted in his instant death link to her or not but she didn’t know about that until years later. Tony made jokes sure, but he’s always making an inappropriate joke about something. Howard hadn’t liked her threats when she found out they were rooted in reality and Maria has sought her out to thank her for it, unsure of what she could do about her situation herself.

Howard has a lot more power than she does and that’s how he likes it. How anyone like him likes it. Too bad Peggy has never been one to back down from a fight and it had almost been easy to wedge herself between Howard and Maria not that she expected anything out of it. She did what she did because that was the right thing to do but the fact that it ended in more isn’t something she regrets by any means. It _does_ allow her some measure of revenge on Howard too, and to hopefully give Tony some measure of peace for what Howard did to him.

“So then what’s going on?” Tony asks, drawing her attention back to him. Peggy is surprised when Maria speaks before she does.

“I’m divorcing your father, Tony. I should have done it years ago,” she admits. It’s a small thing, but Peggy smiles about it anyways. She used to be far more timid, literally beaten into submission, but Peggy has done some hard work with her so she’d finally come back to herself. Sometimes it surprises Peggy to remember Maria before her marriage because she had been far more like Tony in his youth. Marriage hadn’t agreed with either of them, or at least not who they were married to though Tony’s problems are at least half his own making. Maria had nowhere logically to go, Tony trapped himself and got mad about it.

Tony grins, “good for you, take that fucker for everything he has,” he says, causing Maria to blink in surprise. Peggy told her this is how Tony would react- despite Howard’s empty threats Tony never would have taken his side. “Why do you look so surprised?” Tony asks, ever the astute one. If only he made more basic observations in his life and inquired about them- maybe he wouldn’t be in this mess.

Maria lets out a small laugh, “for some reason I thought you’d be more upset I guess,” she says.

“She thought you’d abandon her for Howard,” Peggy corrects and Maria gives her a dirty look for it. She might as well dispel Maria’s worries though and Tony plays into her plan absolutely when he lets out a sharp laugh.

“I’d sooner shove bamboo under my fingernails than willingly say anything positive to or about Howard let alone abandon you for him. Fuck _that_ ,” Tony says, shaking his head.

“Told you,” Peggy says softly before she turns to Tony. “I’m going to need you to do a few things for me,” she tells Tony. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Maria give her a _look_ but they’re going to need to have this discussion one way or another and ripping off all the Band Aids at once makes sense.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “like what? I can’t imagine I’d be useful in divorce proceedings,” he says and Maria laughs.

“You’re a star witness in it Tony,” she says, thankfully taking the lead so Peggy doesn’t have to.

Tony frowns, “how so?” he asks slowly, obviously not putting the pieces together. For a genius Peggy thinks he’s pretty stupid sometimes.

“Tony, you witnessed years of abuse, you were the subject of almost as many years of it as I was,” Maria points out.

Tony lets out a laugh at that- completely inappropriate but relatively normal for him. “Mom literally everyone who ever spent more than five seconds in our house witnessed all that,” he says.

“None that are in a position to say anything about it,” Peggy says and Tony finally catches on to what neither of them are saying.

The anger is instant and the disgust follows just as fast. “God, what a piece of shit. Can’t even own up to his actions so he has to pay people off or threaten them, fuck him,” Tony says, shaking his head sharply.

Yes, Peggy agrees but she has an idea that may not require Tony at all. Maria obviously thought Peggy wanted him to testify against Howard and if he needs to she’ll help him with that, but she has other ideas for a star witness and this one can’t be paid off or threatened and the reliability of this witness is much higher than any human could ever be. “Tony is JARVIS still set up in the mansion?” she asks. Maria frowns but Tony understands right away.

“That’s fucking smart aunt Peggy, I don’t know. I mean you’ll definitely have irrefutable evidence but possibly not a lot. Only roughly four years worth of it,” he says but there’s an excitement to his voice so he has hope. If not Peggy isn’t entirely convinced Tony can’t find a way to find more video evidence from other cameras in Howard’s various houses if all else fails. Under normal circumstances four years would be enough, but Peggy wants to ensure that Howard has no way out of this and that he will suffer as much as humanly possible so if she can get more she will take as much as there is.

She nods, “when you figure it out let me know. I plan to take the evidence to SI’s board- see how much they’ll want Howard as a CEO after that. You should be running the company anyways,” she says and Tony’s face lights up in a way she hasn’t see it do for years. She allows herself a small bit of happiness at the life in Tony finally making a reappearance before she does the hard thing. “I’m not taking it to them until you get your shit together,” she tells him. “Divorce Steve, stop wallowing in your own self pity, and get some damn control over your life after Howard. You’re a smart, capable, impressive man and you’ve got nothing to show for it so step up and _do_ something about your unhappiness Tony. I’m tired of sitting around watching you spiral when you’re more than capable of moving on,” she tells him.

“Peggy!” Maria says and she knows her well enough to know she thinks Peggy is being too harsh but she isn’t.

“We’ve been soft on him for years Maria and look where it got him. Someone needs to tell him the hard truth and that’s that he’s had the power to change his life this whole damn time and chose not to and that’s no one’s fault but his. Stop wallowing, Tony, and figure it out,” she tells him. “And your mother and I are seeing each other,” she says, ripping off the last Band Aid that she figure will sting a lot less than the last bit of information.

Tony frowns, looking between them, “wait, did you guys think I didn’t know about that?” he asks and then laughs. “I caught you guys years ago in the stairwell,” he says.

Maria looks instantly relieved, “that was you?” she asks. Better than anyone else given Howard’s impressive ability to be a massive asshole. If it were anyone else it’d be easy to pay them to tell a story about how poor Howard had been victimized by his big, bad wife. Peggy had intended on finding whoever it was on Tony’s JARVIS footage but it looks like he solved that for them.

“Yeah. Probably why you didn’t hear anything about it,” Tony says. “And if JARVIS has any memory of that well, he’ll conveniently forget about it,” he adds.

Peggy smiles, “thank you, Tony.”

*

Tony sits perched in T’Challa’s lap because when he called Tony had been in too good a mood to let him down gently. One more round, he figured, wouldn’t hurt anyone but T’Challa apparently has other ideas. “I don’t understand your country’s politics. Two days ago it was normal, today the American public finds out another senator is a Nazi and they’re like ‘oh, that one too?’ and then they make a meme about it. Its like this entire country is trying to cover its trauma with jokes,” he says and Tony snorts.

“That’s exactly what they’re doing, T’Challa. Does Wakanda not do that?” he asks, curious about how the nation works.

T’Challa shakes his head, “we don’t have Nazis so no, we don’t do that,” he says but the way he says it makes Tony laugh. “What?” T’Challa asks.

“Sorry, just the way you said ‘we don’t have Nazis’. Anyways you guys must have _something_ in your country that functions as like… an extremist group,” he says. No country is perfect and obviously all he has gotten from the prince is perfection. Something tells Tony that Wakanda is hardly utopian though, even if T’Challa might think so.

“We do- isolationists if I were to make a rough translation of what we call them. People who believe Wakanda should remain closed off to the rest of the world,” he explains.

Tony shakes his head, “every country has that, America has an entire political party dedicated to that,” he points out. Not that xenophobia doesn’t cross all political lines but still.

“Not like Wakanda you don’t. They’re violent and dedicated- not a good mix but they don’t have a lot of political power so they’re mostly just noisy. Occasionally they are more than that, though,” he says. Tony gets the feeling that he’s missing something, probably a cultural cue or something similar, for T’Challa’s words to make any sense. In America political power is everything- without it it doesn’t matter how noisy a group is, they get nowhere fast. But things obviously work differently in Wakanda if T’Challa considers a group that mostly just makes noise a threat.

“Hmm,” Tony murmurs. “Interesting enough, but probably not the reason you called,” he says. Clearly sex isn’t either considering T’Challa hasn’t displayed much interest in it since he got here and that makes him curious.

T’Challa remains silent for a few moments before he speaks. “You were right, earlier. I don’t know anything about you, but I would like to,” he says seriously.

That makes Tony raise an eyebrow but he doesn’t really take it very seriously. He knows T’Challa’s type- he used to _be_ T’Challa’s type- whatever this is it’ll pass but… well, Tony is only human and he likes the attention he gets from T’Challa. So he’ll inevitably get bored when he realizes that Tony is a stupid choice in dating partner and move on. But he can enjoy it while it lasts. “Yeah?” he says softly, smiling at T’Challa. “I’m not really the kind of person people like being in a relationship with,” he warns.

T’Challa smiles at that, “its one of the things I like about you. And by the way my favorite color is purple- darker shades, none of those disgusting lilac colors. Plus in Wakanda we don’t have middle or last names like Americans. Our names are our first names until we get married and then one partner will take the other’s first name as their last name. Historically that meant betas and omegas taking the last names of alphas, but in the last seventy five years or so that’s fallen out of favor and names are chosen by what sounds better,” he says.

It takes Tony a moment to locate why this information is important but when he does he smiles back. “My favorite color is red, pretty much any shade but I like really bright, bold shades best. And my middle name is Edward. Call me that and I’ll never speak to you again,” he says, drawing a laugh out of T’Challa.

He reaches out and brushes his fingers along Tony’s jaw, “I could have guessed red- it suits out, but I appreciate the knowledge nonetheless. Do you have plans tomorrow?” he asks.

Tony sighs, “unfortunately yes- I have to file for a divorce and talk to Steve,” he says. And Sam but that’s another problem he’ll deal with _after_ he asks Rhodey what the shit is cuckhold is and how that relates to race because that was just _wild_ and Tony is confused. T’Challa, for his part, looks considerably pleased with this not that Tony is really that surprised- he doesn’t seem the sharing type anyways.

*

When Sam opens the door Tony has to yell at him to not close it. “Wait, it had nothing to do with race I didn’t even know what a cuckhold was!” he says and Sam sticks his head through the door to glare at him.

“Would you shut the hell up, I have neighbors,” he hisses.

Tony can’t help but roll his eyes, “me too but you went and made me their business. Okay, I’m done being petty now- I’m here to maybe convince you to maybe work things out with Steve,” he says, inspiring a truly awesome reaction out of Sam, who looks at Tony like he’s just told him he has the cure for cancer he’s so shocked.

“What the _fuck_?” he asks and Tony sighs.

“Look its mostly out of selfishness, I don’t want him to get clingy when I ask for a divorce and he seemed like you okay. In _my_ bed- okay, pettiness done. Point is we’ve been in a loveless marriage for a long time and you really weren’t intruding on anything. So if you actually had some kind of connection you should look into it. I might hate being married to Steve but you might like dating the guy,” he says, shrugging.

Sam rubs his temples, clearly trying and failing to process this. “White people,” he says eventually and Tony snorts, thinking of T’Challa and Rhodey.

“Pretty sure black people are just as wild. Seriously though, our marriage was toast long before you entered the picture so uh, aside from Steve lying about me for what I think are obvious reasons I figure there’s no reason to not you know, pick up where you left off.” And hopefully this will keep Steve from trying to cling to a marriage that is never going to happen. They aren’t nor were they ever meant to be. Tony wants to move on and truthfully both he and Steve deserve better than what they gave each other.

Sam clearly has reservations though so he sort of expects Sam to tell him to fuck off and probably to tell Steve to fuck off too but instead he invites him in. “I’ve got some questions and apparently you’re married to the guy so we’ll see how things line up,” Sam tells him and then starts in on an interrogation worthy of aunt Peggy’s respect. Or would she count as a second mother now? Whatever, he’s not going to stop calling her aunt Peggy.

The concerns Sam has though mostly center around what _else_ Steve lied about, which isn’t a whole lot though Tony points out plenty of half truths. All of them are to cut Tony out of his life so the theme is easy to find. He’d been honest with Sam minus Tony being in his life and while that’s kind of a massive lie Sam seems to gather fast that Tony hadn’t been lying about their marriage being in the shitter either.

“Are you sure you don’t hate me?” Sam asks, squinting at him. “Because I feel like you should.”

Tony shrugs, “I could hate you sure but what’s the point? First of all even if I did love Steve with everything I had, the whole bit, it isn’t _you_ who would have broken our vows, its him. Why hate you when you didn’t wrong me at any point? You didn’t even know about me and still, even if you did its still not your relationship to be held responsible for. Plus I cheated on him too so can I really be that mad about it?” he asks. Logically no- he’s just as guilty as Steve is so even being pissed off at him doesn’t make sense.

“I guess, but something tells me you didn’t bring anyone home,” he says. Tony raises an eyebrow and Sam smiles, “I’ve got pretty good people skills. I knew something was off about Steve but I… didn’t really want to believe it. Its not like you find someone who isn’t an ass often, you know the feel,” he says and yeah, Tony does.

“Trust me Steve has a million and one personality flaws that will probably make you want to rip his hair out but bigotry isn’t one of them, no,” he says and Sam starts laughing.

“He said basically the same thing when we met,” he says and Tony doesn’t really want to hear the details. He isn’t really sure why he cares, he shouldn’t, but here he is.

“Well, he’s not wrong. We suck together though, probably doomed from the start,” he says. And what damnation they didn’t get from their general incompatibility they certainly got from both his and Steve’s reaction to everything that happened with Howard afterwards. He doesn’t like that aunt Peggy is right, but she is. And maybe Steve made a few good points in between him being an asshole too not that Tony will ever tell him that.

Sam nods, “yeah you two probably go together about as well as water and oil. Too stubborn, both of you. Not a good mix considering you’re clearly both painfully bad at basic communication,” he says and Tony throws his head back and laughs.

“Oh that’s the understatement of the year. I swear in the last couple weeks he’s brought up shit from the first six months of our marriage like its relevant now. I mean I’ve done it too, but you have to have a painfully bad understanding of your partner to start complaining about things that happened that long ago,” he says.

“You do,” Sam agrees, “but neither of you seem the type to stick something out that isn’t working. You more than him, so what made either of you stay?” he asks.

Invasive, but Tony figures he deserves an answer. “I have a pretty large inheritance and he didn’t sign a prenup. I had some… shit happen with my dad and I lost a lot. Didn’t want to lose half of what little I had left,” he says honestly.

“What changed?” Sam asks, cutting right through the bullshit fast. Yeah, Steve could use a guy like Sam. He doesn’t avoid things like Tony does and Tony gets the feeling Sam has little patience for that kind of thing.

“The knowledge that I maybe accepted what happened to me a little too easily. I’ve been working on some stuff, its gotten the right kinds of attention. Turns out I could have done what I’m doing now years ago but didn’t and Steve kind of got sucked into my shit. That’s not really his fault, to be honestly its only half my fault, but I’m done pretending like I’m happy and I’m _way_ more done trying to find stupid methods to escape that unhappiness. Divorcing Steve seems like a good start. So go back if you want, you probably have a better relationship with him than I do,” Tony admits. Divorce is something he should have done a long time ago, and even if Steve walks away with half of what he has, whatever.

It’ll have been worth it to get rid of what has been a massive weight on his shoulders for almost a full decade. And even if Peggy’s plan with SI doesn’t work out Hope has been more than impressed with his work with the Pym Particles and offered him a job. If things with SI _do_ work out he’s going to talk to her about a partnership. The companies have been in competition for years but they can be more useful together than separate.

Sam considers this for a moment before shaking his head. “I can’t even believe I’m considering this. My momma is probably rolling in her grave right now because this is a stupid idea,” he mumbles.

Tony laughs, “probably,” he agrees. “But if it doesn’t work out I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Sam snorts, “if it doesn’t work out I’m taking the dog assuming you don’t want it. I don’t want it either but I’m going to hit where it hurts,” he says and Tony starts laughing again.

“God, you are such a petty asshole,” he says.

Sam grins, “if you need tips, I’m happy to help. I’m still a little pissed off about this whole thing and I feel like helping his ex get petty revenge is the _ultimate_ petty revenge.”

“Yeah it so is, like that one movie where all those women team up to screw over that asshole. The Other Woman,” Tony says. “Except Steve isn’t nearly as shitty as the guy in that movie.”

“Maybe not but having a whole ass husband and lying about it is a total dick move. _Especially_ bringing me home, seriously, what an asshole. That’s just rude,” he says and Tony throws up his hands.

“Right? At least I used hotels!” he says.

“Like a normal person,” Sam agrees. He’s glad they can at least agree on that, then.


	8. Chapter 8

Sam long ago learned methods of determining whether or not someone is an asshole. Worked best on alphas given that they tended to be the most entitled, but the tests work for anyone who is a potential jackass. One of those tests involves making the first move, which Steve had actually reacted positively to, but another is how someone treats waiters, and how they talk about their exes. Most people have had at least one shitty ex in their life time and sure, being bitter about it makes sense, but there’s a fine line between bitter and red flag and Sam has always been good at finding it.

Right now Steve is probably the most confusing person Sam has ever met considering he’s actually… pleasant? Maybe that isn’t the right word but clearly he doesn’t think lesser of Tony, not exactly, despite the fact that they’ve been in what Sam can only assume was one awful marriage. “You went and talked to Sam? What the hell, Tony,” Steve says, pinching the bridge of his nose. Sam might have the same reaction if he also knew Tony isn’t exactly the best communicator on the planet.

“Well someone had to fix it,” Tony says in his own defense like this is at all something people do, fixing their husband’s extramarital relationships. Sam has no idea how he got here.

“That should have been me or Sam,” Steve says, which is a fair point except they both know Sam never would have come back and Steve never would have come looking. Out of respect and guilt, Sam thinks.

“Please, you never would have gone to apologize and Sam was pissed off about a race thing that didn’t exist. Well, didn’t exist in this situation,” he amends after a moment.

“To be fair, that’s what it looked like,” he says in his own defense.

Steve frowns, “I still have no idea what a cuckhold is,” he says.

Tony rolls his eyes, “google it you damn savage.”

Steve gives him a dirty look, “ _you_ didn’t even google it, you asked Rhodey,” he says.

“Let me guess,” Sam deadpans, “he’s the only black friend you have.”

“He’s the only friend I have period,” Tony says, “so I feel like he shouldn’t count as the ‘I’m not racist I have a black friend’ friend if he’s the only friend.” Steve blinks a few times, squinting as he tries to follow that logic but Sam follows it fine.

“You’ve got issues, Stark,” he says and Tony laughs.

“You’re telling me. Point I came here to make, aside from bringing Sam back, is that I want a divorce. We hate each other and we never should have stayed married, I don’t care if you take half I’m done with this,” Tony says, shaking his head but Steve looks shocked.

His reaction is what makes Sam decide that maybe this isn’t such a stupid idea after all. “Tony, I would never do that,” he says in suck a confused, bewildered tone that Sam believes him instantly. “Besides, literally everything is in your name, I don’t even know if I’d get anything and lets be real here, you can afford better lawyers.”

Tony squints, “I just want my inheritance, I don’t give a shit about anything beyond that,” he says.

Sam has never been witness to two bigger morons in his whole damn life. “Let me get this straight,” he says. “Steve, you stayed because you assumed Tony would take everything. And Tony, you stayed because you thought Steve would take half, am I getting this right?” he asks. Everything being in Tony’s name is interesting too- alphas don’t tend to react to that well. Oh, omegas are expected to give up their last names, make less, stay home, and deal with nothing being in their name legally and be totally fine with it. But if an alpha has to do the same all hell breaks loose and suddenly its disrespect and they don’t like it much. Funny that they perceive that as disrespect to them but when omegas complain they get told to shut up and deal with it. But its nice to know that Steve isn’t that kind of alpha.

They both nod to his inquiry and Sam rolls his eyes at them both. “You two are fucking _painfully_ bad at communication,” he says. “How the hell can you go a whole decade without figuring this out? Look, you two need to sort your shit out and when that happens I will _consider_ trying this again,” he says to Steve, who looks far too hopeful for Sam’s liking. “ _Consider_ ,” he says again.

Tony perks up, “see, I fixed it,” he says happily, earning an annoyed look from Steve and Sam both.

“You didn’t do anything except inform me of how bad Steve is at the talking thing, which is useful to know. Any other husbands you’re lying about having?” Sam asks.

Steve laughs, “no, Tony is more than I wanted,” he says, earning an offended look from Tony.

“Well excuse you,” he mumbles though he’s not that hurt. Not genuinely anyways, Sam is honestly impressed with how easy he is to read and wonders how the hell Steve missed so many cues over ten freaking years.

“Sorry Tony, but you suck as a husband, its an objective fact,” Steve says but he’s got no malice in his tone. To him its just a simple truth.

“You weren’t any better,” Tony tells him. “You don’t cheat in your own house, Jesus. Obviously no one taught you how to participate in extramarital affairs,” he says.

Steve rolls his eyes, “I managed just fine for seven years, Tony,” he says and Tony lets out an offended squeak that’s a genuine reaction. Steve winces, “in my defense, you’ve been cheating just as long,” he says and Tony sputters.

“I have _not_! It didn’t occur to me to cheat on you until a month and a half ago! I was still tying then, you asshole!” Tony says, anger flickering across his features but dying fast. The reaction of someone who is mostly not emotionally invested, Sam knows, because he’s seen it before.

“You should take the dog,” Sam tells him, drawing Steve and Tony’s attention to him.

“What?” Tony asks. “I don’t even want the dog, I don’t even _like_ the dog.” Steve looks upset with that but Sam could have told him on sight that Tony wouldn’t like dogs. Usually more extroverted people liked the more extroverted animal, and while Tony classes as an extrovert he’s more independent than most people who prefer being social. A dog would drive him nuts with its clinginess. But then Steve and Tony can’t even figure out how to ask for a divorce so he’s really not all that shocked.

“You don’t need to like the dog, take the dog and then give it to someone else. That’s worse,” Sam says and Tony laughs.

“Wow, you really are petty,” he says.

“Why are you telling him to take my dog?” Steve asks.

Sam gives him a _look_ , “you cheated on him for seven years, one time in his _home_ , and you want the dog? Fuck you. Also I’m still mad at you,” he says. “Take the dog,” he tells Tony, who’s now doubled over wheezing out laughter.

*

Despite Sam’s advice Tony doesn’t take the dog mostly because he doesn’t want to upset the animal by separating it from Steve. Sure he could have been a petty dickhead about it but he hadn’t wanted to do that to the dog specifically, which he thinks is petty in its own right. Still, he easily gives Steve the house and the dog and everything else in the house minus things that are strictly his because he doesn’t want any of it anyways. In the meantime he’s staying with Rhodey, which he _knows_ Hope will be annoyed with in five seconds flat but he’s already house hunting so he’s hoping to be gone soon.

Rhodey sets a glass of water down beside his notes on the Pym Particles he’s managed to kind of stabilize. “I’m glad you’re finally getting your shit together,” Rhodey tells him softly.

Tony frowns, “what do you mean?” he asks. Tony gets what that means to _him_ , but he doesn’t get why Rhodey would say anything about it.

Rhodey sighs, sitting back in his seat. “After Howard we all expected you to bounce back, you always do. But you just accepted his mistreatment and didn’t do anything after that, nothing that you’d actually enjoy anyways. We all watched you spin out and get more and more miserable waiting for you to finally get bored enough of it to you know, _change_ it but you didn’t. I’ve never seen you do that before, just give up like that. I was worried for you,” he says honestly. He can see it now, the genuine distress on Rhodey’s face and he sighs.

“I’ve _always_ done that with Howard, Rhodey. Its not new and if people wanted me to do something about it maybe they should have taken into account that that man spent my entire life up until that point telling me how worthless and stupid I was. When he told everyone else the same thing it’s not really surprising that I thought they all believed it. _I_ believed it,” he says. Always has no matter how irrational it is, which is what Rhodey points out next.

“He was jealous Tony, jealous of how good you are. How could you not see that?” he asks.

Tony lets out a small laugh, “I did see that, Rhodey, but that doesn’t really change the psychological affects of being told your whole life that you have nothing to offer. Objectively I knew he was wrong, but I’ve always felt like… I don’t know, a fake I guess. Like somehow my talent was a bunch of well placed coincidences and when Howard decided to essentially out my worst fears about myself as truth I accepted that because that’s what I knew to be true about myself. If people wanted me to fight back maybe you should have taken his abuse into account before expecting me to just forget twenty two years of violence to get on with my life.” He knows now that he did the wrong thing, but he’s pissed off that not one person in his life ever thought to consider asking _why_ he behaved so out of character according to all of them.

Everyone has told him the same thing: he’s smart, capable, never taken anyone’s shit and no one thought to ask hey, why are you doing that? If the question had been asked, even if he only thought to ask himself, Tony wonders if it would have shaken him out of his funk sooner. Instead he stupidly internalized all of Howard’s shit. He wishes he would have stepped away from that sooner, but he hadn’t been ready to deal with the abuse. Or that Howard was right about him, and he especially wasn’t ready to deal with what happened if Howard was wrong.

But no one thought to ask why Tony took Howard’s words at face value, not considering the abuse inflicted on him and then he suffered more and that’s partially his fault too, but he could have used help. Shit, Steve could have used help too considering how _he_ spun out. Tony hadn’t noticed, too focused on mastering whatever he had been focused on that week as Steve put it and he’d been right to say it, and that had to be difficult for him. Even if Tony is still a little pissed off about the cheating thing. Not that he has a right to be so he keeps that to himself.

“I’m sorry,” the words come from somewhere else and Tony turns to find Hope standing behind them. “You’re right, none of us even considered Howard. To be honest I don’t think any of us knew about the extent of your abuse.”

Yeah, well thanks to Peggy everyone knew now. Turns out that JARVIS has been functioning just fine and he learned a lot too even without supervision, which Tony is studying now. So Peggy has about thirteen years of extremely well documented abuse from Howard to almost everyone around him and, to Tony’s _intense_ surprise he had caught the dealings of one Obadiah Stane on camera too. So when Peggy went to SI all they needed to know really is that Tony built a semi autonomous AI- something no one has done before and he did it at seventeen- and that it was _his_ inventions that ruined Howard and busted Obi.

The choice to have him take over SI was obvious and Peggy seems to think he’s on track well enough to go back to his old life, or at least the new version of his old life. She had quietly admitted that she’s proud of him for taking initiative in his life and coming from aunt Peggy that’s very high praise. He may or may not have cried when he finally got to a space where he was alone, minus JARVIS of course.

Tony shrugs, “not like I talked about it much,” he points out but Rhodey shakes his head.

“You made these uncomfortable jokes about it all the time, its our fault none of us thought you were serious. Or that you were exaggerating- you told us what was happening the whole time and we ignored it. That’s on us,” he says. Tony wants to argue with that mostly so Rhodey doesn’t look so guilty but he’s not really wrong.

“None of you would have been able to do anything about it anyways, you know that better than most, Hope,” he says. Rhodey frowns because apparently Hope hadn’t told him much about why, exactly, she hates her father so much. They all know that the rich and the powerful don’t go down easy though, which is how and why Tony had internalized all of Howard’s verbal abuse to begin with. Its not like he could go to anyone that Howard had been unable to pay off or threaten. He had little choice but to steep in Howard’s abuse until it settled into who he is as a person and influenced how he interacts with the world.

Hope looks down, shaking her head. “I should have seen the signs, I _lived_ them,” she says softly.

“Exactly,” Tony says, “you lived them so you were too wrapped up in your own shit. We all get like that, its fine.”

Rhodey looks horrified, “no Tony, its not fine. And we’re here for you now, whatever you need.” That’s nice, Tony thinks, but he doesn’t need help now. At this point he’s got things mostly figured out.

*

Tony is rather pleased with his new home; it overlooks the New York skyline like he’s always wanted and its airy, open concept. More modern than anything Steve prefers, and of course there’s JARVIS. When he hears a knock at the door he sort of expects it to be T’Challa but instead he finds probably one of the most beautiful women he’s ever seen behind the door. Instead of speaking he lets out a long, thin squeak and she shakes her head, laughing a little. “I don’t know why I always get this reaction,” she says in a smooth, familiar accent. She’s Wakandan, then.

“Um,” Tony says intelligently.

“I’m Nakia,” she tells him and the name clicks. T’Challa’s best friend, and apparently an old flame too. “Do you mind if we talk?” she asks. Something tells him she’s going to get him to hear what she has to say regardless of his agreement but he does let her in. She looks around the space appreciatively, nodding before she turns to him. “Nice home,” she says. “But to get to the point I don’t think you and T’Challa are a good match.”

Blunt, and it has Tony raising an eyebrow, but he doesn’t mind that about her. Beats dealing with people talking around their point all day like they do at work. “Guess the good news is that this is temporary anyways. He wants some kind of freedom and escape from his life back home and I’m an easy way to do it. I’m older, foreign; previously married- everything about me is off limits. But he’ll grow out of that and realize I’m a shitty choice and then he’ll go back to you, you’ll have beautiful Wakandan babies, and he won’t piss off his entire country for dating an American.” He knows this to be true, he used to be just like T’Challa when he was younger and he grew up eventually too. Granted not the way he would have wanted to but it happened.

Nakia’s eyebrows fly up, “oh,” she says for lack of anything better and Tony smiles.

“What? Did you think I was ignorant to T’Challa’s personality? He has a lot of maturing to do,” he says. It hadn’t been something Tony noticed at first given that talking wasn’t much of what they spent doing, but he eventually that seven year age gap made itself known. Though in T’Challa’s defense he’s at least matured since Tony met him so there’s that, which really only means that he’s got a limited time left with him but he’s fine with that too.

His comment earns him a smile, “I’m afraid I misjudged you so I will apologize for that,” Nakia says. “I thought… well, that T’Challa was something of an experience thing for you, something to brag about later. It rubbed me the wrong way.”

Presumptuous for never having met him, but she obviously talks to T’Challa often so maybe something in the way he talked about their relationship tipped her off. Could be her assessment of how _T’Challa_ viewed their relationship but he doesn’t tell her that. No sense when she’s apologized anyways. “He’s not that to me. I actually do care about him, irritating as he is sometimes,” he says and Nakia laughs.

“Oh, you have no idea. This is the tip of the iceberg; T’Challa was _terrible_ as a teenager. I have no idea how I have put up with him all this time,” she says, shaking her head in genuine wonder.

Tony smiles, already knowing the reason for that. “He doesn’t treat you the same way he treats other people. Something tells me you have zero patience for disrespect,” he says.

Nakia considers this for a moment and then nods. “I suppose that’s true. His mother thought that I would finally talk some sense into him but that didn’t work. He just didn’t act like a spoiled brat to me. Its given me a good look at the man underneath all his ego and privilege but I wish that person would emerge faster. His arrogance is grating,” she says, wrinkling her nose.

“You’re telling me,” Tony says and then they launch into trading stories, which Nakia has more of and _wow_ T’Challa really had been an ass in his youth. Tony finds the story where he tests his luck with the head general of Wakanda, Okoye, the most amusing because the woman did not respond well and now T’Challa has a healthy fear of her despite her doing absolutely nothing to hurt him. Tony thinks he’d like her quite a bit.

*

When T’Challa arrives at Tony’s he doesn’t expect to find him and Nakia wine drunk and laughing about ridiculous stories starring _him_ of all people. He crosses his arms at them, irritated, “I don’t appreciate being your entertainment,” he tells them.

All that does is inspire them to through their heads back and laugh more though. “Honey sit down, we were just talking about that time with the rhinos,” Tony says, patting the seat beside him. Nakia is doubled over laughing and what choice does T’Challa have but to sit down and deal with this?

“Nakia, when you said you were coming to visit this is not what I expected,” he tells her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Deleted scenes included!

As it turns out Tony is a good cook, something T’Challa wouldn’t have expected from someone born into his position or perhaps he is projecting. His father had done his best to try and teach him more basic things but he had resisted and after a single lesson in the kitchen that resulted in an explosion T’Chaka gave up on him. “You make American food actually taste decent,” he says and Tony starts laughing.

“Its not American, its Italian. Figured if I was going to learn how to cook I should tap into my cultural past and I love Italian food so it made sense anyways. Only thing better than that is a cheese burger,” he says and T’Challa wrinkles his nose, confused by the American obsession. That and bacon. He finds burgers bland because he’s not fond of any cow meat- it doesn’t taste anything like meat in Wakanda- and bacon is so salty he doesn’t understand how people enjoy it. Or perhaps that’s because Wakanda is not nearly as fond of salt as America is. No wonder the country has heart problems.

T’Challa smiles, “I suppose that explains why you aren’t as pale as people in Britain,” he says. His brief time in there had been one of the first times he experienced culture shock, mostly around the food, which he still maintains is horrible.

“That explains it, yeah. Guess pale people aren’t exactly popular in Wakanda,” he says. No, but neither is any other race. Doesn’t stop the country from knowing several languages from around the world, they’ve kept up with the world around them in some capacity, which Tony finds interesting so T’Challa fills him in on the details.

*

Nakia hadn’t expected to like Tony but she does. He’s surprisingly aware of himself and his actions in a way she knows will be good for T’Challa, but T’Challa hasn’t seemed to realize that Tony thinks his relationship is temporary. Nakia, because she knows T’Challa well, knows he is enamored. He talks about Tony with an obvious fondness in his tone, mostly in regards to his curiosity and Tony seems to ask questions about everything and anything though he favors science and technology. She knows this because he asked her questions too.

“His interest makes sense considering his line of work,” she points out. And that has been _spectacular_. Tony had taken control over Stark Industries, two days later he trashed the most profitable section of the company, announced an in depth plan to look into clean energy, and a merger with Pym Technologies. In a week that company has gone through more with Tony than it has the entire time Howard has had it and Nakia has been keeping up with the news in interest. She’s always had a curiosity about American companies and watching two of the most well known American companies, usually in competition with each other, collide has been more than fascinating. Especially considering Tony and Hope’s clear respect and admiration for the other.

T’Challa laughs, “yes, but its like he thinks he only has a limited time to ask questions or something,” he says. Nakia wonders if something shows on her face or maybe if something about Tony’s behavior lines up for T’Challa because he frowns for a moment. “He’s humoring me,” he says eventually, looking at Nakia for confirmation. She doesn’t confirm or deny this so T’Challa takes her lack of statement as her telling him he’s right. She expects the kind of reaction he would have had not all that long ago- generally offense that Tony hadn’t taken something he said or did seriously, all fuelled by little more than his own ego but he doesn’t do that.

Instead he considers things for a moment, eyebrows drawing together as he presumably tries to find why Tony thought of their relationship as temporary. If only his parents were watching, Nakia thinks, they’d finally have hope that their son is _not_ the spoiled brat he somehow turned out to be. She’s been telling them both that for years but she knows the evidence is sparse. After a long few moments T’Challa speaks. “Nakia, be honest with me, is there some reason Tony would think our relationship is temporary? I’ve made it clear I don’t think it is, or at least I thought I did.”

More serious than he’s taken most of his past relationship, sure, minus his relationship with her. But that isn’t enough and she takes a deep breath, preparing to tell T’Challa what she thinks of him in a way she thinks he’s finally ready to hear. “You’re spoiled, entitled, and egotistical. You think too highly of yourself and not nearly enough about everyone else around you- its childish and Tony has just ended a marriage that lasted a decade and took a heavy mental toll. He has no time to waste on building your ego; he has better things to do. Beyond that he’s lived a life similar enough to yours to think that he is your last bit of rebellion before you pull your head out of your ass and stop acting like a child with a drinking permit. If you actually want this relationship than you need to get over yourself. Actually you need to do that regardless of what you choose,” she tells him.

Its been a long, _long_ time coming and he’s earned it and then a lot more. But she keeps the rest to herself because right now that’s not constructive. That and she’s sure that finally T’Challa is ready to let go of his immaturity and move on with his life. If she had told him this three months ago T’Challa would have probably stopped speaking to her however temporary it would be, he always comes back, but now he sits back in his seat and nods. “You’re right,” he says finally and smiles a little. “Don’t look so surprised Nakia, you usually are,” he points out.

She smiles back, “usually, but you never listen.”

T’Challa nods. “One of many personality flaws I suppose I should work on,” he says and she nods.

“Your father would appreciate that.” So would Okoye considering she’s the one consistently having to save T’Challa from his own stupidity but she lets him figure that out on his own.

“Alright,” T’Challa says, “I suppose I should talk to Tony.”

Nakia laughs, “yes, _please_ make sure you actually communicate with him T’Challa. Have you read about his divorce? An embarrassing amount of his relationship problems came from a lack of communication,” she says, shaking her head. Hopefully Tony has learned better too though she suspects he has.

*

Tony hadn’t anticipated a trip to the museum to be interesting but T’Challa happened to know a lot about the history of Africa, which turned out to be far less boring than yet another lesson on World War fucking Two like most of his past history classes. What he anticipates less is the distinct air of seriousness around the event, which confuses him but he gets briefly distracted by a weapon that’s actually Wakandan though it had been found there obviously. When he finds himself less distracted its sitting beside T’Challa enjoying the nice weather- he’s spent a stupid amount of time indoors lately thanks to everything with the company so being outside for once is nice.

“I know you don’t think this relationship will last,” T’Challa says, drawing Tony’s attention away from the sun on his face. He sort of expects T’Challa to look offended by that the way he had the first time he suggested a relationship only to be mostly rebuffed but he doesn’t. “I suppose I haven’t given you much real evidence to the contrary,” he adds. “But I would like a chance to try.”

He considers this for a moment before he speaks. “I’m not a good choice for you,” he says and T’Challa laughs.

“You are not a _safe_ choice,” he corrects. “I know that. I’ve put thought into how I will deal with the inevitable backlash politically and how people will perceive my dating an American. I have plans, tentative ones because they still need a lot of work, for how I will approach this but its not something I want to worry about right away. I think its necessary to… feel the relationship out, see if its even stable enough to continue first,” he says, wincing a little but Tony doesn’t take offense to his comment.

“Good, because I want time too. I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely convinced that you’re actually past your rebellious phase and that’s not what I’m looking for. This,” he gestures between them, “is nice but I’ve already wasted a lot of time in a relationship that didn’t do much for me. I’m not making that mistake twice.”

He can see, for just a moment, that T’Challa takes that badly but it doesn’t show for long and T’Challa stops to think before he speaks. It’s a good sign as far as Tony is concerned. “I have almost three years left of my PhD here. I think we will know long before that time is up whether or not this is a viable relationship, but I think it will be beneficial regardless to wait until that time is up to introduce you to Wakanda. If things go well I can preemptively prepare the country before Wakanda loses its mind. Seriously,” T’Challa says, eyes widening a little, “you have no idea.”

Tony smiles and leans into T’Challa. “That sounds reasonable. And I’m sure I will appreciate you prepping Wakanda to not to lose its shit.”

_Deleted Scenes_

Sam squints, unsure how he ended up here. Tony and Steve are arguing, which isn’t exactly surprising, but there’s a lot less of the heat that they used to have before they divorced and went their separate ways. “I can’t believe you were pissed off about Sam when you had phone sex in the house first. You started it!” Steve says, apparently lost on the childish nature of the statement.

Tony’s follow up isn’t much better. “Excuse you, T’Challa wasn’t even _in_ the house,” he says.

Steve rolls his eyes, “what is he, a poltergeist?” he asks and Tony squints.

“That doesn’t even make sense,” he says.

“You should keep those designs of his you found in the basement,” Sam tells Steve.

Tony perks up, “what designs?” he asks.

Sam smiles, “oh nothing big. Just some world changing stuff,” he says. Tony looks at Steve, who looks confused.

“I don’t know why you’re looking at me, I had no idea what I was looking at,” he says.

“Sam I need those designs,” Tony tells him.

“Oh you’re welcome to go looking but you won’t find them,” Sam tells him. “That’s what you get for being all ‘I used hotels like a normal person’ when you didn’t.” Someone has to get petty revenge for Steve, he won’t do it himself. Steve covers his mouth and because he’s a better person than Sam he tries to pretend his laugh is a cough.

“Phone sex doesn’t even count,” Tony says, hands on his hips.

“If it’s got sex in the name it counts,” Sam tells him. He turns to Steve, petting his arm softly, “I’m sorry I was so mad about that baby, I had no idea your ex was the first one to act like a damn barbarian.” Steve doesn’t manage to cover his laugh with a cough first fast enough this time and Tony lets out a soft sigh behind them.

_Scene Two_

Okoye gives T’Challa an uncomfortable look, “am I the only one who thinks it is extremely odd that we are currently at a dinner party with your partner’s _ex_?” she asks.

“No, I think this is very strange too but Tony insisted. Something about needing advice on how to deal with abused children,” he says and Okoye flinches. Yes, that had been basically the only reason he agreed to come as well. T’Challa… he has lived a good life, much better than most but out of curiosity that came from a place within himself he will never visit again he looked up that video footage of Howard that Peggy found using Tony’s AI. He hadn’t even made it three minutes in and _he_ still has nightmares about it let alone Tony. What makes things worse, he thinks, is that when he brought it up to Tony he brushed it off and acted like it was normal. That had made him feel sick for days.

So when Sam and Steve decided to adopt a child that has turned out to have a lot more issues than anticipated it turned out that James took a liking to Tony in particular. Quite likely because Tony has an unfortunate amount of knowledge about what the poor child has suffered. Which is why they’re here now otherwise T’Challa probably would have whined at Tony to stay home. He doesn’t really care what Tony does, that’s his business, but he finds spending time with Tony’s ex awkward though his new fiancée is absolutely hilarious.

“That poor child,” Okoye says, shaking her head. T’Challa nods in agreement and hopes that Tony can draw him out a little. He’s quite skittish, afraid of people and T’Challa is sure he has good reason to be not that he wants to explore that much further.

“Yeah. Did not anticipate the kid we adopted liking Steve’s ex better than us,” Sam says, looking a strange mix of sad and unimpressed.

T’Challa smiles, “on the plus side he’s doing most of the work,” he offers though its not a great consolation. Even Okoye looks at him like he’s an ass.

“It was potty training I wanted nothing to do with,” Sam says, “beyond that I’m fine. I will never change a diaper a day in my life though. Red Wing’s cage is as nasty as I will get.”

“Birds are disgusting,” Okoye says, earning an _offended_ look from Sam. He launches into an explanation of why birds are the best pets ever and T’Challa abandons Okoye there, ignoring her ‘help me’ looks because its much more amusing when he isn’t on the other end of Sam’s bird man lectures.

“She insult birds?” Steve asks and T’Challa nods. “He can defend them all day but I still think they suck. All Red Wing does is squawk at me,” Steve says.

“At least your cat did not try to eat the bird,” T’Challa says. Cats eat birds, its what they do, and how was he to know that one had an owner? That resulted in a series of not at all fun to deal with petty revenge schemes that all seemed to work out in Sam’s favor.

Steve nods, “yeah, good point. I’d say sorry but your cat _did_ just almost eat his pet so.” He’d defend his cat, who was just doing what cats do, but it would have been genuinely unfortunate if she ate Sam’s bird. Red Wing is thankfully just fine though.

They watch Okoye look for any escape possible from Sam’s bird lecture for a few minutes, amused, when Tony reappears with a child clinging to his side. Its an adorable image, Tony gently coaxing the small child forward until he decides he’s not going anywhere. Tony bends down to his level, speaking to him too low for anyone else to pick up on. Eventually Tony picks the child up and he clings to Tony’s neck, obviously suspicious of his surroundings as Tony carries him over to Steve, obviously unruffled. Steve looks more nervous, probably wondering if he’s going to mange to botch this interaction if his past worries are influencing his current concerns.

He smiles softly anyways, “hey,” he says and the child turns to Tony, wide eyed.

Tony grins, “its fine, go ahead,” he tells him. Tony’s clearly playful demeanor must do something to calm the anxious child because he turns back to Steve.

“I go by ‘Bucky’,” he says almost too soft to hear but Steve catches it fine and, to T’Challa and obviously Bucky’s surprise, starts laughing.

“Oh my god, _that’s_ why you don’t call to your name half the time? Wow, mystery solved, you use another name. Should have asked that,” he says, shaking his head ruefully.

“Told you it’s be okay,” Tony tells the child, smiling at him until he smiles a little back. Steve looks absolutely thrilled with this because that poor child doesn’t smile much if ever. Finally he’s seeing progress.

_Scene Three_

Tony is bad with dates so when T’Challa looks extra pleased for some reason Tony has no idea that it’s the date that has him looking so happy. “You’re looking pleased with yourself _because_?” he asks. Its not something he sees often on T’Challa’s face anymore thanks to his newfound maturity so clearly something is going on.

“Its been three years,” he says when Tony doesn’t catch on immediately. “From our agreement,” he adds when Tony continues to look confused.

He feels like a right idiot after that, “oh shit, obviously. Sorry, you know I’m not good with these things,” he says but he leaves the rest unspoken. He doesn’t know how T’Challa feels about their relationship in regards to Wakanda. He knows the country knows about him, and that they weren’t impressed at least when they found out, but he also knows T’Challa has taken a much more proactive role in his country’s politics too. Maybe its influenced things but Tony doesn’t know how to ask about that.

T’Challa laughs, “I know you are, Tony. But it has been three years and I think that we work well together so I would like to bring you home,” he says.

Tony winces a little, “you sure that’s a good idea?” he asks and T’Challa shrugs.

“Probably not but Wakanda needs to learn to grow, to learn. We can’t hide away forever and Nakia is right- we’re a strong people. Letting people in won’t destroy our ways.” He sounds like a political leader and Tony smiles, proud of T’Challa for it. He seems so different now than the person he used to be and its for the better really.

“Okay,” Tony says. “If you think that this is a good time, then okay.”

_Scene Four_

Bucky looks at his tiny arm and Tony already sees like five hundred problems with it. Most notably that it lags behind his biological arm in response time but Bucky looks enthused. “Its experimental,” he says to Steve, “but-”

Steve cuts him off, looking vaguely like one of Sam’s panicked birds. “That thing isn’t going to blow up, is it?” he asks and Tony gives him a disgusted look.

“No Steve, Jesus Christ. I was a shitty husband, not a child murderer, what kind of person do you think I am?” he asks.

“You said experimental,” Steve says in own defense.

“Experimental, not ‘could explode’. Why the hell would I put an explosive on a _child_ , Steve? Again, what kind of person do you think I am?” He’s probably more offended than he should be, Steve is just stupidly overprotective, which Tony _knows_ is going to be a problem when Bucky starts self actualizing but in the meantime its fun to watch. Except when he’s accused of turning a child into a bomb like he’s in that shit movie T’Challa made him watch. Tomorrowland, that’s it. He might love T’Challa but his movie taste is dead awful.

Steve sighs, “I didn’t think that through,” he admits finally and Tony nods.

“Damn right you didn’t. Bucky, come here,” Tony tells him. He proceeds to run through a bunch of different tests, noting the problems with the prototype arm. He sighs and sits back after a few minutes, considering his options.

“I like this one,” Bucky says softly and Tony smiles.

“It has a lot of problems,” he says and Bucky shrugs.

“Less problems than no arm,” he points out and that gives Tony an idea.

“Actually you might be on to something. Steve, have him wear that around for a few days. See if the response time improves. It might not be picking up on commands because Bucky isn’t used to having an arm there,” he says. That would explain things, and if he knows that’s the problem he doesn’t have to redesign that part of the arm. If it is then he’ll work it into his next design that will solve all the _other_ problems with it.

Bucky grins, turning his metal wrist over, watching it with a fascinated look on his face and Steve smiles softly down at the child. Thankfully he’s taken a particular liking to Steve, but he and Sam have been making improvements too. Tony thinks its nice that Steve has finally gotten the family he wanted, and beyond that the life he wanted that Tony never could have given him. And Tony is far happier with T’Challa than he ever was with Steve even if he could do without Wakanda’s bullshit. Suspicion sure, but the border tribe seems to think his mere knowledge of the country will somehow result in the entire country failing and collapsing in on itself. T’Challa had been right when he told Tony he misjudged exactly how extreme isolationist ideals were. The plus side is that Wakanda has some very pretty flowers T’Challa likes to gift Tony with frequently.

_Scene Five_

Tony has always wanted kids and hadn’t been in the right place to have them but T’Challa has always been lukewarm to the idea. He’s expected to have children sure, but Tony told him outright that if he has kids just because he’s expected to he’d leave him. No kid deserves to be born just because they’re expected to be the heir to the throne, that’s horrible. T’Challa hadn’t brought up kids for a long time after that, so he’s surprised when he brings them up again.

“Kids?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow.

T’Challa shrugs, “you’ve always wanted them,” he says and Tony frowns.

“So what? If you don’t want them then there’s no point in having any. Only one parent’s love isn’t going to make up for the other parent not caring,” he says. He knows from experience and he wishes aunt Peggy would have gotten rid of Howard sooner but understands why she waited. It did result in a huge amount of jail time given how horribly disgusted the public was and he’s never seen his mom happier. She and aunt Peggy make a good match though stepping up from Howard isn’t a difficult thing to do.

“I do want children, I’m not sure if I’m ready to have children, but I’m also fairly certain that’s not the kind of thing you can measure readiness for,” he says. If this were a couple years ago Tony would be sure that admission would have been little more than an effort to please him. But T’Challa has grown a lot since then so Tony trusts that he’s put thought into this decision.

“Okay,” he says, curious about how much more thought he’s given the situation.

T’Challa takes a deep breath. “I’ve spoken to Nakia and she’s agreed to be a surrogate,” he says and Tony eyebrows lift.

“Are you sure she’s a good choice?” he asks and, to his surprise T’Challa gives him a _dirty_ look for it too. “Don’t you look at me like that, she’s a war dog- she’s used to living a fast, active lifestyle that’s pretty much one adrenaline rush after another. Forty weeks is a long time to miss out on that kind of thing, you sure she won’t get stir crazy?” he asks. Because he’s positive Nakia will get stir crazy after three days of relative inactivity compared to what she’s used to.

Thankfully T’Challa loses his attitude, “sorry, I thought… doesn’t matter, I should have known better. Nakia offered though, and I think she’s a good choice.”

Tony shrugs, “if she’s agreed…”

_Scene Six_

Nakia lies on the ground staring up at the ceiling and Tony grins down at her. “I hate to be the one to say it, but I told you so,” he says, earning an annoyed look from her.

“If this child does not stop kicking my bladder I am getting an immediate C-section. I hate pregnancy, and I hate people who tell me its beautiful more. There is a horror film happening inside my body,” she says and Tony bursts out laughing, earning another annoyed look from Nakia.

“Good news is that you’re not far off from your due date I guess,” Tony says.

Nakia lets out a long, drawn out sigh. “I miss being a war dog,” she says. “I need excitement in my life, got anything going on that will bring me a little joy?” she asks.

Tony laughs, “actually, I might.”

_Scene Seven_

He sits in a jail, Nakia behind him looking oddly formidable for a pregnant woman, and Howard sitting in front of him though there’s thick glass in between them. They stare at each other for a long moment before Tony pulls the copy of _Forbes_ out of his briefcase and sticks it to the glass in front of Howard’s face. He lets Howard examine it for a moment and when he looks up Tony pulls the phone off the wall beside him. Hesitantly Howard lifts the phone on his end off the wall and presses it to his ear. “How’s _that_ for worthless, you fucking piece of shit,” Tony tells him, slamming the phone back on the wall and flipping him off in a way he’s wanted to do for years.

Nakia picks up the magazine and frowns, “are you seriously the first omega to run a massively successful company?” she asks.

Tony nods, “yeah. There are a few with million dollar companies, but I’m the first one to own a company worth billions and I’m currently the only one a company heavily involved in STEM fields.” Hope is only one of like two hundred betas running a multimillion dollar company too so she’s relatively rare in her field as well, and as far as women go she’s leading that charge too. And she hired Jane once it had been proven that Jane was more useful with the Pym Particles than Tony was. Her thinking methods are far more unorthodox and it works considering the unorthodox nature of Pym Particles.

“This is absurd,” Nakia says, shaking her head. “In Wakanda we don’t have such a massive rift.” So Tony knows. Wakanda is upset with the minor disparity still remaining but it still surprises him how much more freedom omegas and betas have there. They also don’t have that bizarre social structure where alphas dating alphas or omegas dating omegas is weird and borderline taboo either. Tony had thought for the longest time that Nakia was a beta, which is stupid considering he can smell that that’s not true, but when her alpha status came up he’d been right confused. T’Challa thought it was funny, but Tony had to confront cultural expectations he hadn’t known he’d internalized. It did make a lot of T’Challa’s behavior make sense though, mostly around why he never seemed to be threatened by Tony’s uh… _large_ personality, or his success, or most anything else about him.

“Yeah, too bad Wakanda has a thing against foreigners or I’d move there,” he says but Nakia shakes her head.

“You’d miss New York too much. And the Doras would probably ship you back to America with all the nonsense you cause,” she says and Tony laughs. Yeah, she’s probably not wrong about that.

“In my defense I didn’t realize that was a panther,” he says.

Nakia sighs, “I don’t understand how you haven’t been eaten by wildlife if you can’t tell the difference between a panther and a cat.”

“Okay first of all panthers _are_ cats, and second I live in a city. Not much wildlife to eat me there, it’s the traffic I have to worry about.”

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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